


Mercy

by raynos



Series: Mercy [3]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Banter, F/M, Flirting, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Organized Crime
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-27
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-09-27 00:53:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 44,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9942926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raynos/pseuds/raynos
Summary: (Mafia AU) In an alternate universe where Nick never bought a skunk butt rug, mobster Nick Wilde and meter maid Judy Hopps follow the trail of the missing Mr Otterton.  The both of them may find getting on the wrong side - of the law, of the Don, of power hungry politicians - could be the last thing they ever do.Tentatively updated everytwo weeksmonth maybe?when I get my shit together I'm sorry.Beginning of chapter is written and the rest is inching along.





	1. But I gotta stay true

**Author's Note:**

> In honour of Zootopia's Oscar win; Inspired by Duffy's Mercy from Judy Hopp's Spotify playlist

Nick had just barely rolled himself into his pull out bed like a lump of limp linen when his phone started buzzing. The custom ringtone kicked in a beat later. "Oh baby let me be," his phone implored from the top of the dresser where he had left it.

Nick jammed a pillow over his ears in the hope it would drown out Elvis Bearsley. But the beat of the song kept bouncing around his head. It knocked loose images of all the tragic ends waiting for Nick if he didn't answer the caller with the custom ringtone right now.

He struggled out of his sheets, rocking the drawer he slept in. His phone was high above, on the counter of the elephant sized dresser Nick had filled with all his worldy possessions, including his bed. Getting to an upright position involved grabbing drawer knobs as Elvis went on about being led anywhere. Finally, Nick's finger hit the green phone symbol as Elvis warbled, "Your lovin' teddy bear!"

Koslov didn't even wait for a greeting. "Come. Now."

Nick meant to ask where he had to be, but his tongue hadn't woken up with the rest of him. The garbled sound did prompt Koslov to say, "A car will be waiting."

The click let Nick know the call was over. He squinted at his phone screen, trying to see past the glare to the tiny digits that would tell him the time. Night vision was a pain in times like these. If his phone was right, the car would be coming at half past.

Time to crawl back into his clothes then. He was glad that he'd ignored his exhaustion to shower before bed. He had to wear the good stuff to see Mr. Big, and the muggy air of the Rainforest district was already making his fur frizz. Rainforest district was as close as he could get to Tundratown without being in eternal winter itself. Being able to move without the bulk of a winter coat was worth the extra time needed to spitz himself in musk mask and brush his fur out.

The meditative strokes had lulled Nick back into a drowsy daze. He felt out the clothes he needed, and got as far as struggling into his pants before he realised that his jacket didn't match his pants. He'd lost the jacket for the pants he had on to a bunny that had needed its warmth more than he did.

He wasted a few more minutes getting on a new pair of pants, and brushing out his tail after it'd been dragged through the tail hole twice. But it was worth it when he tugged his tie snug on his matching suit, and grinned at himself. His reflection showed how everything had come together nicely.

Too nicely. He hooked two fingers in his tie and yanked the knot down. He couldn't look like good old dad, not when he was meeting mammals the likes of Mr. Big. He finished the look off by popping open the topmost button. There, now he was Nick Wilde, associate to the mafia.

By the time he got to the lobby of his flat the car was waiting, though the driver wasn’t the usual Manchas. Nick dashed into the car anyway. If Mr. Big wanted to off Nick, he wouldn't be so obvious about it.

 

"Thanks for the smooth ride, aren't snowchains amazing? Hey, could you say hi to Manchas for me?"

The driver simply shut the self-closing door as she drove off, likely heading back to the limo rental place. Nick figured that the driver didn't talk to strangers - Nick'd probably get a better response from Raymond, who was on garage guard duty again. Raymond was absorbed with whatever was on his phone that his usual toothy grin was absent.

"Raymond! You're awake for this time of night!"

Raymond glanced over his phone. "Wilde. You're wanted in Mr. Big's office."

Done with his Koslov imitation, Raymond looked back to his screen. That dismissal and all the time Nick had on his long silent trip was making Nick rethink his first thoughts. He'd run with Mr. Big long enough to know that the crew thought a headlock was just as funny as a knock knock joke. But they definitely weren't a stoic crew that kept their heads down and got things done. Raymond's behaviour suggested that the gang saw a dead mammal walking, and Nick was hoping that dead mammal wasn't him.

It didn't help that Mr. Big wanted to speak to him in his office in the cold part of the house. That office had a convenient trapdoor under the rug with a one way ticket on the wrong side of an ice floe. Nick had warned other mammals about that office before, and could make the trek as he wondered what could have gotten him in trouble with Mr. Big. Creative interpretation of instructions? Making too many jokes at the mafia's expense? Showing off Mr. Big's house as it if were his?

Nick knew he'd reached the right place at the sudden change in temperature in the room. The office was deceptively warm to keep it comfy for the mammals waiting there - Mr. Big flanked by his usual retinue of polar bears. Nick would have to step over the very trapdoor he'd been worrying about to kiss the ring that Mr. Big was holding up in anticipation.

Nick tiptoed in to give the customary greeting, and hoped that Mr. Big didn't notice him skidding back from the thin wood to the more stable stone floor. Aside from the trapdoor, Nick was feeling very nervous about whatever had Mr. Big's bushy eyebrows knit together in a deep scowl.

"I'm having a bad evening tonight, Nicky, so I hope you can give me some good news. You know everybody in Zootopia, don't you, Nicky?"

Before the bunny, he might have bragged. Now, he settled for his smoothest tones to say, "I certainly make the effort. Who do you want to ask me about?"

"I sent a car last evening to pick up a mammal to meet me, a mammal I thought I could trust. He told me he had something important he wanted to discuss. Instead he ripped up my car, roughed up my driver and ran away into the night."

Nick glanced at Koslov and the other flanking polar bears before looking back at Mr. Big. "Well, that is one mammal with a death wish. No one in his right mind would dare to cross you, sir. Except the rival gangs, but we knew they weren't all that straight in the head." That earned Nick some chuckles from the polar bears, which emboldened Nick to venture a guess, "Wasn't Mike from the Vesper gang trying to cosy up to you last week?"

Mr. Big hummed thoughtfully. "What you say makes sense, Nicky, though I thought the mammal was better than that. It's Otterton."

"The guy who does your flowers?" Mr. Big wasn't wearing any flowers today, but for special occasions and important meetings he sometimes put a flower in his lapel.

"I trusted Otterton with my wedding and I trusted him with my daughter's wedding. This disappearing act, it hurts me. It hurts my baby. I'm gonna have to tell her she isn't going to have the best on her big day, and I don't know how to explain it to her. What ideas you do have, Nicky? Why would one of my associates do that?"

"If it was anyone else I'd say they'd been here long enough to get ideas but not long enough to know which ones work." Nick tried to recall what he knew of Otterton. Nick was a sales mammal who sometimes tried his paw at interior decorating but he didn't know plants like Otterton did. Otterton liked dressing up places for parties, and dressing down in his spare time but not the kind that'd get him into trouble with his family. If his family was in trouble though... "Maybe he got into a rough spot and chickened out before he could open his mouth?"

Mr. Big jabbed a sharp claw at Nick. "Get me that reason. I want to know what Otterton wanted to say to me, and what made him hush up. And if you can suss out where Otterton is on top of that, you'll have done my family a great service. You think you could do that, Nicky?"

"Mr. Big, sir, count on it." Nick was glad that all the polar bears were all arrayed behind Mr. Big - no one saw him cross his fingers behind his back.

"Good good. I like reliable mammals. Especially mammals who are discreet, who know what goes on in the business stays in the business. You'll be talking to a lot of mammals outside of the family - your contacts, Mrs. Otterton. Otterton was with us before he was with his missus, and he wanted to make sure she doesn't know about us. I respect a mammal that wants to treat his family right, and I want you to do the same on Otterton's behalf."

"Whatever would I do without your good advice, sir. I won't tell her what she doesn't already know."

"If only more mammals were like you, Nicky. If only they understood the value of respect. That respect has earned you my full support, Nicky. I'll arrange for you to talk Manchas, he was in the car with Otterton. You let Koslov know if there's anything else you need."

"Sir, you're generous enough as it is. I'll start right away with Manchas, if that works for you."

"I've already sent him home. He's in a bad state right now, Nicky, you won't be able to get anything out of him."

"What, Otterton nibbled two fingers instead of one?"

Nick expected a laugh like the joke he'd cracked about other gangs. Instead a lot of polar bears stared at their paws or phones, as Raymond had earlier.

"My child, we may be evolved but deep down we are still animals," said Mr. Big.

Nick's phone buzzed with a message. Half dreading what he was about to see, Nick tapped it open.

The first thing he saw was all the blood, stark red and dripping. Then his eyes caught the other details - the black fur matted with the blood running down it, the blood filling the deep welts left by claws, the eye -

His stomach turned and he closed the image before he could start making sense of what was going on with Manchas' eye. The scenarios he had to pick from were already horrifying. Probably Raymond had been obsessed with this picture on his phone - he was the sort of guy who kept pics of mammals he had roughed up. "Alright, so no talking to Manchas until later, got it. Is there anything else I can do for you, sir?"

"Get some sleep. You look like you're running on fumes, and I want the best you've got. A car will send you home. Call the driver if you need the car anytime tomorrow."

"Sir, you are so kind, really, looking after all the mammals working for you." Nick waited to be shown out of the room, even though he was itching to leave. The further he got from the trapdoor and the icy waters below, the better he felt.

It was only a temporary relief. He wasn't near the trapdoor, but he was getting closer to trouble with Mr. Big. Mr. Big wanted results. He didn't care it wasn't going to be easy for Nick to retrace the steps of a mammal who seemed to have gone cuckoo. And if Nick found Otterton in the same bad temper that he'd confronted Manchas...

Nick pretended that his shivering was due to the cold of the garage. It wasn't because of what happened to Manchas. Not at all. He waved a goodbye at Raymond, crawled into the waiting car and didn't look anyone in the eye.

The car door shut with the heavy finality of a coffin lid.

 

Ever since she'd started on the official path of becoming a real police officer, Judy found herself looking up at things. She'd looked up at the ice wall and all the training mock ups; looked up at her other cadets and later fellow officers; looked up to the trainers and the Chief.

The latest thing that Judy was looking up at was a computer in a cubicle, both sized for an elephant. Bob's computer was a familiar sight to Judy, though she rarely saw it in the morning light. Her daily quota of 200 tickets before noon meant she had to start moments after the daily (disappointing) briefing in the bull pen and her daily (demeaning) discussions with the Chief. She could only borrow Bob's computer only after she got her tickets done.

Today, today would be different. Her daily discussion with Chief Bogo had paid off when an otter had barged into the bull pen, looking for a police officer to find her husband. Judy had volunteered.

It had taken an enthusiastic Assistant Mayor Bellwether and a 48 hour deadline for Chief Bogo to grudgingly agree, but Judy finally got her first real case. She wasn’t on meter maid duty. She didn't have to wear an orange vest or a playbunny suit or anything else that hid her badge. She finally felt like a real police officer.

First order of business for Officer Hopps - finding Emmitt Otterton in the computer system.

Since Clawhauser had said Bob was out on paid migration, Judy had adjusted Bob's cube a little bit to her liking. She'd moved the potted plant just so, cranked the swivel chair to the highest it could go and shifted the keyboard and touch pad back to clear more space on the desk. Now she bounded off the plant and the chair in turn to land on the desk without knocking anything over.

She looked at the keyboard and grinned. This - this might call for music.

With earbuds in and a swipe of her iPaw, the beat of Gazelle came through her headphones. She leapt from key to key on the elephant sized keyboard to tap out Emmitt Otterton's name to the rhythm of the song. Her impromptu dance ended on the Enter key just as Gazelle declared her resolve to start again. The police records database churned the name to find... nil records on Otterton.

That was alright. A sweet little otter probably never got up to anything bad in his life, and it burned her up to have to add a missing person report on him. As Gazelle sang about falling down and getting up, Judy navigated the keyboard and the computer system to the case reports. She pulled up Otterton's driver licence and filled in his details from that and the notes she'd taken when taking Mrs. Otterton's statement. After typing out "Florist" for Otterton's occupation, Judy scrolled down. The words "Nil" for leads on the case glared in red text at her.

"I won't give up, no I won't give in," Judy sang along with Gazelle as she dug out her notebook again. It was up to Judy to fill in the field on leads, and she thought she knew where to start. Mrs. Otterton had said that the last she saw her husband was when he bid her farewell to head for his yoga class at Mystic Springs Oasis. Now Judy had to make sure that Mr. Otterton had indeed made it to his class.

Bob's computer had access to the jam cam system as well. Judy found the cameras surrounding the spa in Sahara Square quickly, though none of them covered the entrance of the spa itself. No matter. She skipped to a time close to when Mr. Otterton was supposed to arrive at his yoga class, and settled in to watch.

She finally spotted Otterton from one of the cameras overlooking on a sidewalk that had other mammals going about their daily business. Otterton nodded at some of the mammals running the stalls by the road. Curious, Judy wound that video back to see if Otterton had greeted other mammals along this street. Maybe it was a common route for Otterton.

She slowed down when she noticed Otterton had stopped to talk to one mammal for more than a frame. As the time stamp of the video ticked backwards she saw more details of that mammal - bushy red tail, bright green shirt, insufferable smirk. It was the fox that had called himself Nick Wilde, looking as he had at the bar instead of the fancy party she'd regretted ever hearing about.

She dragged a paw across her face and groaned, "No, not that fox!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This universe where Nick was also on the Otterton case, but for a very different employer, has been on my mind for a while. I figured the easiest way to pull it off was to shift the entire timeline of the movie forward - Nick hasn't gotten around to buying a skunk butt rug, Judy joins the force early and both get the Otterton case the moment he disappears. Let me know if this take on the idea works for you!
> 
> The scene with Judy and the computer is heavily inspired by [this deleted scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBFKZy27pHw). I enjoyed that scene so much that I had to recreate it.


	2. Got me on my knees

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to tag the fic as part of the [Mercy series](http://archiveofourown.org/series/632618)!
> 
> There are two other fics in the series; [the fic where Nick picks up Judy at a bar](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9319127) and [the fic where Judy first introduces herself as a cop](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9499802). If you haven't read the fics yet, check them out! It'll make the references in Nick and Judy's banter easier to understand.

Despite Mr. Big's orders to rest, later that morning Nick was neither bright eyed nor bushy tailed. The bite of ice and of teeth had lingered in his mind, sending all his senses on high alert for any obsessed otters.

It resulted in a look that Nick wasn't too proud of. He took the extra time needed to brush out his tail to a semblance of bushiness, and popped shades over his eyes. There, at least he looked slick enough now for Mr. Big business.

He wasn't going to undo his good work with walking - although Nick and Otterton lived in the same district, Rainforest district lived up to its name, drenching mammals with rain from climate control or with sweat from the muggy air. Just waiting for the car to pick him up from the roadside was already threatening to make Nick's shirt stick to his fur. Even the meter maid in the glorified golf cart was inching along, brought down by the humidity.

Or maybe not. As Nick watched, the cart made a sharp U-turn to stop in front of him. A rabbit leaned out to shoot him a strained smile. "Hi, it's me."

"The bunny from the bar." He took off his shades to get a better look at her. A change of clothes and seeing her in daylight hadn't diminished her looks at all. "Did you look me up just to show me your cop costume, Officer Fluff?"

"Ha ha. Actually it's Officer Hopps, and I'm here to ask you questions about a case!" She even dug out a notebook and a cute carrot shaped pen, as if she were a real cop. Nick had his doubts, just like he had his doubts about whether Finnick and Honey were as clueless as they claimed to be about Hopps' appearance at the birthday party.

"I'm sorry but I liked the Playbunny look better. If you're taking tips I'd suggest you lose the Kevlar and show a little more fur. Keep the skin tight bodysuit though."

As Nick spoke, Hopps' eyes were narrowing in a scowl. "You're gonna wanna refrain from the innuendo."

"You didn't seem to mind it too much at the bar. What's the matter, trying a new hard-nosed persona to go with the costume? Just between you and me, impersonating an officer happens to be a crime."

"I am a real cop! Look, see this?" She tapped her badge, as if fake badges weren't a dime a dozen.

"And I am going to need to see some id before I believe that."

He half-expected her to storm off as she had at the party, but Hopps did reach into a belt pouch to pull out an ID card. A proper one too - if she really had gone to the effort to fake it, she'd paid good money for someone with expertise.

He had stared at the card a little too long. Hopps had flipped open a folder and with a victorious tone she said, "So now that's cleared up - "

"Nope, Carrots, I've gotta get to work and your jokemobile is blocking the lot where my ride needs to park, so you gotta go." He slid the ID into the papers of her folder, and tapped it to make it go down. Hopps fished her ID out of the folder with an annoyed jerk.

"This is important, sir. I think you and your thrift store suit can wait."

"Ha! I make more than 200 bucks a day, Fluff! 365 days a year, since I was twelve. I can get my suits tailored. And time is money, so unless you want to pay for my next suit out of a cop's salary, hop along."

"Please, just look at the picture." She held up a picture of Nick talking to Otterton. From the high angle, it looked like a shot from a jam cam. Mr. Big was not going to like this. "You spoke to Mr. Otterton yesterday, right? Did you know him before that?"

"I know everybody. And I also know that somewhere there's a cake missing its bunny, so why don't you get back there?"

Her ears had gone right down, but the steel was back in her spine. "Fine, we'll do this the hard way." A click, and Nick found a cuff had been slapped on his wrist.

"Rabbit, did you forget I told you playtime cuffs ought to be padded?"

"Nicholas Wilde, you are under arrest."

She couldn't have picked up enough dirt from her stint at the party to get him arrested, and the last Nick checked it wasn't a crime for mammals to chat on a sidewalk. That gave Nick the confidence to lean against a nearby meter and smirk down at her. "For what? Hurting your fweelings?"

"Felony tax evasion. See, that jacket you left me?" She pointed at the suit that Nick had on now. "I found out where it was made, and the prices that tailor is quoting is a thousand a suit, at the least. Then there's was that really useful tip you told me, what was it? 200 dollars a day?" She left off tapping the pen against her cheek and started to scribble at the back of her file. Nick felt himself inch closer to Mr. Big's icy trapdoor with each pen scratch and her narration of her calculations, which she ended with, "- one million four hundred sixty thousand, I think, I mean I am just a dumb bunny, but we are good at multiplying! Anyway, according to your tax forms, you reported, let me see here, zero! Unfortunately, lying on a federal form is a punishable offense. Five years jail time."

"Well, I'd love to see you explain to a jury how you knew that jacket was mine. Besides, it's my word against yours."

She held up her carrot pen with the same triumphant expression that she'd jumped out of a cake in a playbunny costume, and pressed the play button. Nick's own voice was echoed right back at him. When the recording played out, Hopps wiggled her pen at him. "Actually, it’s your word against yours. And if you want this pen, you’re going to help me find this poor missing otter or the only suit you'll be wearing is a prison jumpsuit." She cocked her hip and shot Nick a brilliant smile. "It’s called a hustle, sweetheart. Since lying is the only thing that you seem to get."

She had definitely booked Nick a one way trip on the wrong side of the ice floe. Mr. Big didn't look kindly on associates stupid enough to get caught. The question was if she was a fellow passenger on the same ride.

Hopps' triumph turned to dismay when Nick yanked the folder out of her paws. He ignored her indignant shout to flip through it. His tax forms, some jam cam photos, more photos of Otterton, and a missing person's report.

The last Nick skimmed through. So Mrs. Otterton had made a police report when her husband hadn't come home last night. There was nothing that tied Otterton to Mr. Big in the report. Nick could let Hopps take him in and ditch her the first chance he got.

But he was dealing with a rabbit who hadn't given up when shown the icy grave of other mammals. Even if Nick got rid of her, she would still be snooping around more than Mr. Big liked. The part of Nick that wore tailored suits out of nostalgia, that didn't tighten his tie when walking on the wrong side of the law, that part prompted Nick to say, "Find the otter you said? You don't even know who you're looking for."

She yanked the folder out of his paws. "So you do know Otterton. Start talking."

Behind Hopps, the limo was coming around the corner. Perfect timing. "Oh I would. But since you think lying is the only thing I seem to get, you might not believe my sincerity. So I thought I'd show you." He gestured to the limo, watching Hopps' eyes widen as the luxurious car pulled up. Next to the limo, her jokemobile was rendered small and insignificant. "I'm getting into this limo. You could trail us in your glorified golf cart - if you can keep up - or you could get in the car with me. Remember, I have your cuffs." He waved his cuffed wrist.

With a glare that could have melted stone, Hopps reached up to snap the empty side of the cuff around her wrist. "I'm not letting you out of my sight. Get in the car."

 

Judy looked at the monogrammed glasses in the shelves mounted on the limo, and felt about as small.

It was the size of the car that was making her feel this way. The limo was large enough to fit a family of hippos or polar bears comfortably, and Judy was on the other end of the size range. Then there was the cuffs she had slapped on Wilde, which had them sitting closer together than Judy would have preferred. Every time Wilde moved, she had to go along with.

He seemed to realise that, because he was shifting in his seat again. Judy yanked on the cuffs to stop him from dragging her across the seats.

"I just want a drink, Fluff. You want some?"

"No." Everything Judy could see from this angle was alcoholic, and she needed her wits about her to deal with Wilde.

"I promise I won't have you trade me a kiss for a drink."

Judy's ears pinked as Wilde went dredging up things from a past she regretted. It didn't help that the driver had put on a song where the singer was crooning about missing someone the way he missed them. It was the song making her feel sentimental. She didn't recall the moment Wilde kissed the back of her paw at all.

To thwart Wilde's teasing, she grit out, "One drink. That's all we're having."

At least he didn't tease about her changing her mind, choosing to pour drinks for the both of them in silence. For an associate low down enough that he didn't warrant a mention by name in her mission briefing, he seemed too familiar with the inside of Mr. Big's car. Judy took the glass Nick handed her to hold on to, not intending to drink from it.

Wilde seemed to relax after his sip, leaning back in his seat and tapping his fingers on his knee. "So what do you know about Otterton?"

"I thought I didn't know who I was looking for. You were supposed to tell me about him."

"I will, once we get to the shop. But since you wrote a report about him, what do you know?"

"I know Emmitt Otterton is a florist and a sweet litte otter who has two beautiful children with a lovely lady. He would never just disappear on them. But with you involved, maybe his disappearance has to do with _Mr. Big_."

"Mmhmm. Have you been to Otterton's shop?"

"I just got the case this morning."

"That's a no. Well, guess what, we're heading to Otterton's shop that is currently being run by the very lovely lady that is his wife. And I will betcha she isn't used to mammals coming by in cuffs. So I guess you could... take these off?" He raised their wrists.

"So it's that important to get the cuffs off."

"I'm sure you have a whole speech planned for Mrs. Otterton on why you had to bring a dastardly criminal to her shop, Carrots, but I'd rather not have to sit through that. So are these cuffs coming off or not?"

Judy sighed and pulled out the key, starting with her side of the cuffs. "I'm doing this for Mrs. Otterton." She unlocked Wilde's side of the cuffs, then yanked on his tie to bring him down to her level. "Not, maybe, because a smarmy fox asked. You even think of running off, these cuffs go right back on."

Wilde let a lazy, slow smile creep across his muzzle. "Do you like yanking my tie that much, or do you like what comes after?"

She was done having this fox hold that one night over her head. "Maybe you like what comes after more than I do, since you keep bringing it up."

She busied herself with tucking away the cuffs. She couldn’t afford to let Wilde's reaction, whatever it was, distract her. Besides, the river running by the road was more interesting. Judy's meter maid patrols didn't bring her all the way to the river, and the last she had seen it was from the Zootopian Express. As she watched a zeppelin drifted overhead, following the path of the river.

The limo was slowing now. Judy turned back to Wilde to find that he'd put on his shades again. "We're here," he said.

The Otterton's flower shop was set right at the base of the huge trees that made up the Rainforest district. This tree wasn't sunk into soil with buttress roots like Judy had expected. Instead great prop roots stretched on either side of the stores that had walkways leading to the roads and also to the water.

Eager to see more, Judy jumped out of the limo as soon as it stopped. She was startled by the plop of water hitting her shoulder. She glanced up and saw that the leaves immediately above had drip tips to run off the water quickly. She'd read about such plants, but they couldn't have grown in the climate of Bunnyburrow.

Before more water dripped on her, a black umbrella was opened over her head. She looked up to find Wilde holding the umbrella over the both of them. All the black from his shades, suit and umbrella should have made him look like he was at a funeral, but the pop of red from his tie and the handkerchief tucked in his pocket made him look dashing instead.

No, such thoughts were dangerous. Judy spun on her heel and marched towards Otterton's shop, leaving Wilde to keep up.

The Ottertons had outdone themselves for the display. Live orchids trailed from planting panels set in the frame of the shop front, making the shop look like a natural extension of the tree it was set in. In the glass of the shop front, the plants of the other biomes were displayed in sharp contrast. Temperate flowers like roses and lilies flourished behind cooled glass, adding to the riot of colour. When Judy opened the door, a tickling bell and a whoosh of cooled air welcomed her into the regulated environment of the shop.

As Wilde closed his umbrella, Mrs. Otterton sidled out of the depths of the shop, greeting them with a tired "Welcome. What can I - Oh Nicky!" Judy tried not to stare as Mrs. Otterton dashed over and exchanged air kisses with the fox, who'd even bothered to bend down to make it easier for the smaller otter. "It's so good to see you. And Officer Hopps of course. But why are you here together?"

"Oh! It's nothing!" Judy forced a laugh and elbowed Wilde in the stomach. "He said he knew where your shop was so we were just dropping by!"

"We're here to ask you some questions about your husband." The slight smile Wilde had worn for his greeting had now given way to gentle concern. "Mr. Big heard he didn't come home last night."

"It's about his order isn't it? I promise you I can do the arrangements just as nicely as Emmitt can, Miss. Big doesn't have to worry about a thing – "

"We're not here for that, Mrs. Otterton," Judy hastened to assure. She was curious about the connection between the Ottertons and the Bigs, but that could wait for when Mrs. Otterton wasn't babbling with nervousness.

"I'm not here about the wedding," Wilde agreed. "Mr. Big just wanted to see how you were doing in these trying times, and he sent me here to give you support."

"Bless you, Nicky, bless you Mr. Big. Oh how nice you all are." As Mrs. Otterton spoke, Wilde was already guiding her to a seat. Once he had her settled in a chair behind a table used for flower arrangements, he put a tissue in the paws she was wringing.

"How are the children taking it?" The line was delivered with such sincerity that if Judy hadn't seen Wilde lie in exactly the same tone of voice, she would have believed he was really concerned about the family.

"They don't know yet. I just told them that their father is traveling to see some rare blooms. They miss him, but they don't know yet." The reminder seemed to have undone Mrs. Otterton, and she dabbed her eyes with the tissue Nick had handed her.

"It must be hard for them, if he was away for one of those trips recently."

"Oh no, he hasn't been on one for a while. He's been getting a lot of shipments right at the shop itself, we've been busy with those."

"That many?" Wilde's voice conveyed wonder, but Judy had to wonder if the rest of Wilde's expression, now hidden under his shades, would tell the same story. "Have you been keeping track?"

"That's what my Em did. I don't know flowers, but I can read invoices and balance books. That's how I met my Em." Mrs. Otterton's expression grew fond. "He asked for my help with numbers and ended up asking for my number."

"That's so sweet," Judy couldn't help remarking.

"He's a confident guy to let his wife hold his purse strings. Why, you must know everything - his little expenses... if the shop is doing well..."

"Oh heavens, I definitely would! Our shop is doing fine, well, better than fine - it helps that Mr. Big hasn't been shy in his praise of our shop. And Mr. Big's orders are generous, so generous. We want for nothing, and Em's yoga helps him relax."

"I'm sure it does," Wilde muttered.

The pause in his questions gave Judy the opportunity to ask the question that had been on her mind all along. "What orders did Mr. Big place with your shop?"

"The most recent are the wedding arrangements for his daughter. And his usual boutonnière."

"She means the flowers you wear in the buttonhole of a suit, Carrots," Wilde sing-songed, as if Judy had no idea what that might be.

She wasn't interested in that. Wilde had asked enough questions that Judy definitely had an idea of what he was trying to find out, and she was curious about the same. She put that question to Mrs. Otterton now. "I know you said in your statement this morning that you hadn't noticed any unusual behaviour from your husband. But was there anything unusual with the shop?"

"Yes! Yes, there was that break-in just a week ago when that bold weasel robbed us in broad daylight. I wanted to report him to the police, but my Em said it was just a few flowers that would be easy to replace."

This wasn't just a lead, this could be a motive! Judy tried to keep the excitement out of her voice. "This could help us find your husband. Do you know what the flowers were?"

But Mrs. Otterton was shaking her head. "I have no idea what the weasel took. Em could have told you, but he's missing..."

Judy put her arm around Mrs. Otterton's shoulder, feeling as terrible as she had this morning when she'd taken the otter's statement.

Wilde too offered comfort in his own way. "I know it's painful for you, Mrs. Otterton, so you don't have to do a thing. We could look at your books and see what the thief had taken for ourselves - with your blessing of course."

"If it helps you find my Emmitt, please, look at anything you like. Let me show you where we keep the books."

Mrs. Otterton led them to the storeroom that contained both cut flowers and full plants in pots that lined the windows overlooking the river flowing under the tree. There was another table here with half arranged flower baskets waiting to be worked on. Mrs. Otterton slipped under the table and pulled out a box of books.

"The books with papers clipped in them are Emmitt's records of the flowers and the other books are mine." In the front of the shop, a phone started ringing.

"Don't worry about us, Mrs. Otterton, you go ahead and get that," said Wilde.

"Just come look for me if you need anything!" Mrs. Otterton called over her shoulder, and hurried to the front of the shop.

The scent of the flowers filled Judy's nose like the floral version of harvest season back in Bunnyburrow. It made her eager to roll her sleeves up and get to work, like she did on the farm, even if she was working with books instead of plants.

Wilde didn't seem to share her enthusiasm. He was texting while he wandered around peering at corners, especially anywhere that wasn't covered in plants. Judy looked at the pile of books, and thought of her 48 hours. The search for the missing plants would go faster if they worked together and Wilde did get her this particular lead. Maybe he might offer more help if she got on his good side.

"We've really learned a lot since we came! Mrs Otterton's been really helpful."

"Don't thank me so soon, Carrots. You haven't seen nothing yet."

She definitely had no intention of thanking Wilde now that he had proved he wasn't worth the effort. "And what am I supposed to see?"

"You wanted to know about Otterton? These records will tell you all you need to know." He tugged open a disguised drawer and pulled out a folder from it. With a flourish, he spread the folder open on the table to reveal stacks of receipts for orders. "Otterton didn't just deal with your garden variety plants, he - well, this reads like Greek to me."

"Hate to disagree, but that isn't Greek. It's Latin."

"Police Academy wasn't challenging enough for Miss. Overachiever, you just had to take night classes in Classical Languages."

"Ha ha. I grew up in a family where plant husbandry was kind of a thing. What's on this receipt is an order for Nepeta cataria, a herbaceous perennial."

"What's with all the dead languages, why can't you call it what it is?"

"There are several varieties that go by the same name that it's clearer to go with the scientific name. Besides, someone like you might not realise how insensitive the name catmint is to felines when even raccoons and some canids might be affected – " Judy trailed off as she flipped to the next order. Anise was a nice enough plant... for gardens. Like catmint, it was pretty rare for such plants to be used in floral arrangements, especially for weddings. As Judy flipped through the orders, they started to resemble a list of contraband rather than a list of orders by a florist.

Over the top of the folder, Wilde was smirking at her. She could see her bewildered expression in his shades. "Now you know who you are looking for. You didn't expect this of a sweet little otter like Mr. Otterton, did you?"

Who wore shades inside a building? Judy cleared her expression and focused on the whys facing her. "Why would Mr. Otterton sell these plants when he has this shop?"

"He didn't always have this shop. For a young guy it's a lot easier to sell catnip than a bunch of roses, especially when you're paying Mr. Big instead of the sin tax. Did they not brief you on Mr. Big's main rackets when you went undercover?"

The ZPD had, and Judy now thought she understood Wilde's concern about his tax forms. "So you think that if we follow the plants, we'll find Mr. Otterton."

"There's pretty stiff competition out there, along with some professional jealousy. Mr. Big hasn't made it a secret that he prefers Mr. Otterton. Otterton going missing so soon after the robbery is ringing alarm bells."

"And Mr. Big's involvement isn't suspicious at all."

"Mr. Big likes Otterton because he understands that working on the black market doesn't mean we have to throw all our ethics out of the window and sell to children. He's not behind Otterton's disappearance."

Judy recalled the family portrait Mrs. Otterton had handed her that was now tucked away in one of her pouches. Wilde's suggestion made sense, though he'd also made sense when he approached her in the bar. He could have a hunch on the true motive for Mr. Otterton's disappearance, or he could be trying to distract her from finding out that Mr. Big was the real culprit.

Either way, Wilde seemed to know a little too much for Judy to take his word for it. "Then you wouldn't mind if I looked around a little more."

She turned away from him to focus on the latest orders to figure out what had been taken. The storeroom was too small and too far under the tree to keep plants for long, so there weren't as many plants as she had feared. She found the plants listed on them with a simple glance around the storeroom. It wasn't until she got to the order for Midnicampum holicithias that she didn't spot the purple flower immediately, even though Otterton had written it was delivered just a week ago.

Wilde paused from flipping through the account books as she started to shift the pots of plants. "I don't think Otterton is hiding behind any of these pots, Carrots."

"I'm looking for these plants. Do you see them?"

Wilde ignored the receipt she was waving in his face. "I already said I can't read classical languages."

"So the name _Midnicampum holicithias_ doesn't ring any bells for you?"

"Nope, not at all."

Judy found an image of the flowers on her phone that might work better. "What about these?"

"If you took those flowers, processed them and told me what they're called on the street, I might recognise them. But no, I don't see any flowers that look like those in the picture." He too waved an account book at Judy. "And since none of the latest sales were to mammals who are into the special plants, I'd say that those purple flowers are the stolen plants."

Just in case Judy glanced at the book that Wilde had been flipping through. But Mrs. Otterton kept her accounts by the name of suppliers and customers rather than by stock. Unlike Wilde who really seemed to know everyone, Judy would need more time than her 48 hours to match everything.

Wilde seemed to think it was curtains for Judy from the final way he snapped the account book shut. "You're welcome for the clue. I know you can't get enough of me, Fluff, but it seems you'd get off just fine on the dead languages of plants. So give me the pen, and we'll go our separate ways."

She glared at his outstretched paw and wondered if she should go straight for her cuffs. "I said if you ran off, the cuffs go right back on. Or did you enjoy the cuffs after all?"

For the first time since they'd entered the storeroom, his grin faltered. "Rabbit, I did what you asked. You can't keep me on the hook forever."

"Your conversation with Otterton yesterday is the only reason why I'm talking to you. You used up 3 of my 48 hours to solve the case without even mentioning the conversation. So how about you tell me what went down between you and Otterton yesterday?"

Wilde's expression had gone as blank as his shades. "What are you asking for? A full re-enactment?"

"I want to know everything you know."

"The place we talked about isn't exactly a place for a cute little bunny."

She tried not to let Wilde's excuses frustrate her into tapping her foot. "Don't call me cute. Stop avoiding my questions."

"You're the boss, the boss gets what she wants." He leaned in, and Judy had an unwelcome flashback to their first meeting in the bar. "As long as you know what it is you want."

Judy already knew Otterton had probably brought up Mystic Springs Oasis in his conversation with Wilde. How bad could a spa be?


	3. Stop playin' games

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics are both used for emphasis and for mental narration by characters.

From Nick Wilde's phone:

 

Alright, so Judy Hopps had surprised Nick by being a city cop right down to her id. But he had her pegged when it came to her roots as a naive little hick with big dreams about Zootopia that no one cared about. Like how the animals at Mystic Springs Oasis had gone right on being naked despite her discomfort. Even now she was still fidgeting and eyeing naked mammals passing them as they went through Mr. Otterton's locker for any clues.

"You shouldn't be nervous. You have a sexier body than any of the animals we've seen."

Her ears were already down from her mortification, so Nick couldn't tell if he'd managed to embarrass her into blushing. Pity, her reactions were about the only thing that was making his tedious search of Otterton's locker bearable. Most members of the spa rented lockers to keep the clothes they needed for polite society. It was hard to figure out if Otterton had hidden anything in his locker from the missus, especially when everything inside smelled of flowers. He would be more enthusiastic if he'd caught the same scent from the receipt of Midnicampum holicithias that Hopps had waved at him. But life was never that easy.

So it was a welcome distraction when Hopps grit out, "That night is never happening again, so how about you just forget all about it?"

"Never is a long time, Fluff. Don't make promises you can't keep when we both know my charm crosses the species line."

"I don't remember ever saying that." She had been as vehement on the way to the Ottertons. Nick hadn't pushed her then since he wanted her undiluted reaction to Otterton's side business. Now, they had time until Weaselton had been located.

Nick reached out to tuck his finger under Hopps' chin. "Let's see if we can jog our memory."

Hopps was doing her best deer in headlights impression. "W-what are you doing?"

"Trying to recreate the moment. How did it go again?" He leaned in, savouring the anticipation brought about by their proximity, a proximity they hadn't shared since his birthday party. "Oh I remember now, it was your good looks that crossed the species line... and my kissing."

There was no beer for Hopps to distract herself with this time, but she made a valiant attempt. "Doesn't it bother you that I'm a cop?"

"Since you put the hot in hot fuzz, I'm willing to make an exception."

He closed his eyes as he narrowed the distance between them. Like the other kisses that they'd shared, it was abrupt - abrupt in how it was thwarted. Something hard, flat and definitely not a rabbit smacked into his nose.

A glance confirmed he was getting a close up of her notebook. When he peeked around the notebook, Hopps' expression had narrowed to a scowl.

"You won't be so sure of yourself after I run this plate and put your boss in jail."

The healthy dose of reality had him drawing back his paw from her face. "If you want to dig yourself into that hole, go right ahead. Don't come running to me with your cute, fuzzy wuzzy little tail between your legs if you can't find Otterton at Mr. Big's."

"Funny, I was going to say the same to you if you ended up being arrested for aiding and abetting Mr. Big." She put even more distance between them to scribble more notes in her notebook under the licence plate number from the yak, then tucked her carrot pen back in the spine. "I think we're done with Mr. Otterton's locker. Let's head to the station to run the plate - "

"Since any moron can run a plate, let's not insult our intelligence by wasting our time. I will take that pen and bid you adieu."

"You're eager to wear these cuffs." Hopps' paw was indeed hovering over the cuffs, ready to reintroduce them to Nick's wrist.

"As happy as I'd be to indulge your impulses, just as it was with Mrs. Otterton I don't think the ZPD will be entirely thrilled to have a dastardly criminal within a 100 feet of their systems. But by all means, prove me wrong."

"I'm sure they have holding cells in your size."

Nick's phone beeped and he made a show of checking his message over paying attention to the glowering rabbit. Honey had come through, and all Nick needed to do was get to the location she'd given.

He'd done his best to keep the rabbit from a watery grave. Time for him to get around to saving himself from the same end. "You could put the real criminal in the holding cell. Turn on your radio."

"What does my radio have to do with anything?"

"Don't you want to hear about the real criminal before he gets away?"

He didn't get why she drew her radio with a lot more reluctance than she'd gone for her cuffs. It wasn't until she thumbed the radio on that he understood.

"Officer Judy Hopps, saving Zootopia one traffic violation at a time. Except whoopsie, she's not on meter maid duty right now. And double whoopsie, she's only got the one licence plate to pave her way to becoming a big city cop. Must be hard having all these resources. Hey can you tell me where the next big traffic jam is?"

Hopps snapped her radio and its litany of traffic updates off. "I'm in a really big hurry, so I don't have time for your diversions."

"Well neither do I. Guess I have to go catch Mrs. Otterton's weaselly visitor all by myself."

"You found the thief? Great, we can find out if what he stole has anything to do with Otterton disappearing. Where is he?" Her ears had crept up, but that wasn't going to last long.

"How about no, I will not tell you."

Right on cue her ears dropped. "What is your problem? Do you just enjoy making a joke out of me ever since you picked me up at the bar? Does hustling me somehow make you feel better about your own sad, miserable life?"

"It does, 100%. Did you think it would be that easy, Officer Fluff? If you want to know so bad, how about this." He leaned in to deliver his message. "You give me that pen, and I take you to the weasel."

Hopps showed none of her earlier trepidation at their proximity, her anger bringing all of her suspicion to the fore as she held her ground with narrowed eyes. Nick could work with that.

"If you're going to get me for aiding and abetting, do you still need to get me on taxes? Give me the pen please."

"Fine. Deal. Here's your pen." Nick made to take it, but Hopps snatched it back before he could by dangling the pen above their heads. "But if you're lying and there's no weasel, I'll bring you back to the station on charges of obstruction of justice."

He simply smiled at her with an outstretched paw until she reluctantly dropped the pen in his palm. She watched it disappear into his back pocket as if memorising the location for a quick grab later.

Nick put his shades back on. "He's as real as your badge is. I'd say more about my sincerity, but let's not beat a dead horse, hm? Come along, Officer Fluff, our more modern ride awaits."

 

As always, Honey was good on her intel. Duke Weaselton wasn't at his usual corner selling DVDs - not surprising, given that Honey had picked up Weaselton's trail from his smash and grab earlier - though his bag of bootleg was slung over one shoulder. Weaselton was watching a gang of rowdy kits spray paint an abandoned metro exit, and definitely not too busy to answer Nick's questions. Perfect.

"Alright, I know this guy, so you let me take the lead. I'll greet him, make some small talk to throw him off guard, and then - "

The limo door clicked open and Hopps leapt out. "Stop in the name of the law!"

Weaselton, a mammal of guilty conscience, immediately bolted.

"Great, I'm dealing with two idiots." Nick tapped on the privacy screen. "Hey, do you think you can tail them in the car?"

"You'll see. Paws off the door." Activating the self-shutting doors, the cheetah driver revved up the car to follow in the wake of the two sprinting mammals. Hopps leaping from roof to roof was easier to spot than Weaselton who'd taken the low road under parked cars. Weaselton was just a little faster, but he was running out of cover as the row of parked cars was coming to an end.

Hopps was just a second too slow on the dismount - she hit the asphalt a moment after Weaselton had scrambled away from the same spot. He took advantage of the reprieve to toss his bag over a fence, then scramble through the small hole at its base.

Hopps followed. Nick didn't bother, since he'd seen the sign that said Little Rodentia lay behind the fence. "Get us to Canal Street, and stop at the junction with Mulberry Street."

To the cheetah's credit, she veered in the right direction without losing any of the speed she'd started the chase with. It wasn't long before the limo pulled up to the entrance for non-rodent guests to Rodentia. It was simply more cost effective for Rodentia residents to have items made for regular sized mammals be rejigged for use on a smaller scale. Most of those goods passed through this entrance. That also made it a popular place for thieves like Weaselton to palm off their pilfered goods. Weaselton wasn't going to be asked uncomfortable questions about why he only had the one item to sell when a large delivery wasn't expected in the first place. Once Weaselton had managed to evade Hopps, he was probably going to head for places that he was more familiar with.

Or the bunny could just do her job and save Nick the trouble. He'd find out soon enough. For now he was just going to watch the deliveries go by. Huh, that was a Chough Bakery truck, it must be a Tuesday.

Wait. Tuesdays were Targoat Tuesdays. Which meant...

Nick threw open the car door and nearly leapt into the path of a rodent sized delivery truck. He started scrolling through his contacts as he hurried through a litany of blaring truck horns. Fru Fru Big wasn't one of Nick's frequent contacts, but he had to have her number somewhere...

He found it and rang it before worrying about the next thing - was she going to pick up his call?

Thankfully, she picked up on the third ring. "Hello, Nicky?"

"Miss. Big, I am so sorry to interrupt your shopping, but you have to leave immediately."

"Oh. Is Daddy doing something in the area? Did Koslov make you call?"

"It's got nothing to do with Mr. Big. Well, not yet. I've got a car waiting, where are you?"

"I'm near Mousy's. I can - "

"No, no." Nick could already see scurrying mice, and he did not want to find out what Hopps and Weaselton were up to. "Things are getting a little messy, I'll come to you."

He had no time for the routes designated for larger mammals, which he knew from experience would take him the long way by the fence. He could see Mousy's just down the street. If he just hurried along it...

It worked out a lot better in Nick's mind. There were more cars than Nick expected and he had to watch where he ran. He was doing a lot better that Hopps, who had vaulted from God knew where to land in front of Nick.

His paw stepped on something that was definitely not road. In his moment of distraction he'd gotten his foot stuck in the back of a truck. It took his weight, which was good. It was sending him skidding down the street like a runaway rollerblade, which was not.

At Mousy's, Fru Fru was dumbstruck by the sight of Nick careening down the street that she did _not_ see the giant donut bouncing over Hopp's head.

Scratch that, he needed the speed. Nick used the truck to vault him into a pounce.

Fru Fru screamed and covered her head with her paws just as Nick cupped his paws over her too. He braced for a giant donut to bean him in the head.

When that didn't happen, he cracked open an eye to peep. Hopps was holding a giant donut inches from his snout. 

Hopps heaved a sigh of relief. "You two ok down there?"

Nick unclasped his paws to make sure that he hadn't squished Miss. Big by accident on his kicker of a day. Fru Fru blinked up at them, unharmed although a little ruffled. At least Mr. Big had one less reason to ice Nick.

"I love your dress," Hopps gushed, unaware of Nick's dark thoughts.

"Aww, thank you. Say, you look familiar - "

"Carrots, Weaselton!"

Hopps dashed off after the escaping thief. Nick dragged himself to a crouch so he wasn't grinding more gravel into his suit than there already was. "I am so sorry about jumping on you, Miss. Big. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Who threw that giant donut? I'm telling Daddy about that wretched mammal!"

"Miss. Big, I would suggest that we get out of here immediately."

"Nicky, paw."

He sighed and held out his paw for Fru Fru to clamber on. Hopefully Hopps had subdued Weaselton by the time they got to them, or he'd have to worry about Miss. Big's safety again. He wasn't an enforcer, that was the last thing that he was qualified to do.

When he got to them, he found trapping Weaselton in a donut qualified as an arrest. Hopps seemed satisfied enough, as she was focused on checking the contents of the bag, which weren't the usual DVDs. "He stole more plants."

"Is that the Midnicampum Holicithias?" said Nick, leaning over to get a good sniff. The bulbs had none of the perfume that the flowers had, and under the soil it smelled somewhere between a fruit and a mint.

"The who the what now?" Weaselton spluttered. "I just wanted to plant these Night Howlers in my garden, why'd you go and arrest me for? Hey, Flopsy the Copsy, Wilde is the mammal you should be arresting, he sold popsicle sticks to a construction site by saying the sticks were redwood!"

Nick ignored Hopp's sharp look to favour Weaselton with a lazy smile. "That's right. Red wood, with a space in the middle. Wood that is red. You might want to watch your words, your giant donut nearly killed this young lady here."

"I'm sure Daddy has something in mind for a weasel!"

"Hey, hey!" Hopps threw an arm out to keep them from approaching Weaselton. "He's under police custody now. We'll take him down to the station for processing, where you can press your charges if you like."

"Oh please don't let us hold you back from your hefty responsibilities. Miss. Big, now you know who threw the donut I'm sure Mr. Big will know exactly what to do."

"He definitely will," Fru Fru declared as she turned her nose in the air.

"Well, now that's decided I'll borrow this and be on my way." Nick bumped the bag hard enough to send a Night Howler bulb rolling out, and pocketed it. That would save him the trip to Weaselton's place today.

"You're removing the evidence!" Hopps spluttered.

"You had a whole bag of mouldy onions and a criminal to transport that you didn't notice this one bulb slipping out of the bag. And I, a concerned citizen, noticed and picked up the evidence before it got lost. But because I have to send this lady home, to my regret I couldn't return it immediately. You'll get your evidence back, Carrots... when I feel like it."

"Where are you going? You're supposed to come with me to the station."

"You already have your hands full with the Duke of Bootleg, who has a rap sheet about a mile long. Who should you arrest, little old me who has nothing on record and trouble filling out forms, or him? Besides, who knows? I might help you find Otterton while you're busy questioning Weaselton." Fru Fru in hand, Nick sauntered towards the paths designated for larger mammals. "Hang in there, Fluff. You'll see me soon enough if a licence plate and a petty criminal is enough to get a warrant."

 

Her daily discussions with the Chief gave Judy a pretty good gauge of how much trouble she was in depending on where they had their discussion. If Chief Bogo was humouring her, they talked wherever they stood, even in open corridors. If the Chief was exasperated he would speak with her in the bull pen, with the doors closed. Judy had only been in The Office twice.

Bringing Weaselton in had already made Chief Bogo summon Judy to The Office.

 _Just imagine how it would have gone if you'd brought anyone else along._ Judy's mental voice didn't sound like her today, having taken on the teasing tones of a mammal used to laughing at his own private jokes. She could almost imagine Wilde was really in The Office too, exploring things on the Chief's desk until the Chief ordered him to cut it out.

But Wilde wasn't here and Judy would do nothing of the sort at all. Instead she sat and listened to a list of things she'd done.

_Sounds like a list of charges to me. You sure you weren't joking about being a real cop?_

Chief Bogo was winding down to the end of his speech now, and Judy struggled to pay attention. " - but to be fair, you did stop him from stealing a bag of mouldy onions."

_You're going to tell him the same thing you told me, Fluff?_

Why fix what wasn't broke? "Hate to disagree, sir, but those aren't mouldy onions. They're Midnicampum holicithias, a crocus varietal with an interaction class of C and a safety class of 2d, which means they only affect the receptors of certain populations - "

"The point, Hopps, get to it!"

"Sir, I've got good reason to believe that plant behaves like Nepeta cataria, or what's commonly known as catnip. It's a plant that mammals can use to get high if they're of the right species."

Bogo leaned back in his seat with his arms crossed. "Didn't the Academy teach you that catnip isn't illegal?"

"Well alcohol or cigarettes usually aren't illegal either! But if those are contraband, it's a case for the ZPD."

_Wow, Carrots. It's amazing how you managed to keep your figure after swallowing the rulebook._

Bogo wasn't impressed either. "Aside from proving that your Academy education wasn't a complete waste, I fail to see how this is relevant, Hopps. Or did you forget you were supposed to find Otterton?"

"Sir, I was getting there. The weasel I arrested also took Midnicampum holicithias from Otterton. Contraband Midnicampum holicithias. I believe that Mr. Big has enough of an interest in those plants to resort to kidnapping Otterton over his stock."

_You conveniently left out whether Otterton knew the Night Howlers were contraband. From one liar to another, nicely done._

Judy was only doing this because Mrs. Otterton didn't deserve to have her livelihood taken from her because of her husband's mistakes. She didn't need her mental Wilde to understand. She was more concerned about the increasingly sour expression creeping over Bogo's face.

"Whatever you might believe after your stint in our operation involving Mr. Big, we do not throw around his name lightly. You need hard facts before we can even think about glimpsing Mr. Big's bushy eyebrows. We don't arrest him or his mammals on a hunch."

"I got the bad guy. That's the job of a real cop, and Mr. Big or his mammals shouldn't be the exception."

"That's what you believe. Belief doesn't tie Mr. Big or the weasel to Otterton. Belief doesn't make you a real cop. Did you think if you keep on believing, the dreams that you wish would come true? I need proof, Hopps."

_We do need proof. Proof that Chief Bogo loves cartoon musicals, doesn't he have such an uncanny knack for quoting them?_

Judy's dismayed expression at her errant thought caused Bogo to think she had been cowed. "No proof, no warrants, no missing otter," he snapped out, punctuating each item with a jab of his hoof tip at Judy. "Do you understand?"

"Weaselton has proof, sir. Let me interview him and I'll put a case together."

"Be my guest. Don't you forget, you have 40 hours left to find the otter. Don't get distracted."

As Judy slid off her seat, her mental Wilde remarked, _That's almost friendly advice, coming from him._

 

Not for the first time, Judy wished that she had managed to get an interview room. She'd studied interview techniques at the Police Academy. She knew how to get an unresponsive suspect to talk by portraying the right image of professionalism.

_You sure are looking professional now, Fluff. Whip out the dress blues while you're at it._

Her mental voice was right - it was hard to portray a professional image in Bob's cube when she had to kneel on top of the desk. No wonder Weaselton was sitting in defiant silence in Bob's chair - it was easier to secure cuffs to the handrest. At least she had the cuffs that she'd liberated to deal with Wilde.

_A pair of cuffs, a radio of traffic updates and a car that looks like a golf cart. You even have to borrow a desk. Maybe you should have convinced me to stick around._

Well, Judy had passed police academy without an irritating fox. She had her own resources.

"So. Wessleton."

"It's Weaselton." As if the correction had unlocked the floodgates, he went on, "Duke Weaselton. Why am I still here? Didn't you hear those bulbs were for my garden, Cottontail?"

"We checked with florists in the area, and one of them reported the exact plants you took were missing. I'm sure we'll know who took them after the forensic evidence comes through. Are you sure that's the story you want to stick with?"

"Alright, maybe I helped myself instead of spending my precious money on it. So throw me in a cell! I've been around long enough to know how it goes with the fuzz."

"I also know this isn't the first time you've stolen Night Howlers, and unless you own a farm I don't think you could have planted all of them."

"My neighbour thought my plants were pretty so I got him some too. What's it to you?"

"We both know you have no interest in plants. What were you going to do with those Night Howlers, Wessleton? What was so important about them that the florist you stole them from disappeared?"

"It's Weaselton! And I ain't talking, rabbit. And there ain't nothing the popo can do to make me."

_Too bad you can't pull the hustle with the pen on him, isn't that your way of dealing with uncooperative mammals?_

Wilde had Judy's pen, but remembering that reminded Judy that this was an unrecorded interview. It wasn't as if anyone would know if Judy deviated from the Academy approved script, or shared more facts than she'd told the Chief.

"You already know Mr. Big is going to be pretty unhappy about the giant donut you threw at his daughter. Well, it turns out that's not all there is! You remember that otter you stole the Night Howlers from? The one in the Rainforest district with flowers growing all over the shopfront? It just so happens that florist is Mr. Big's florist."

Weaselton's nervous swallow was audible in the large room.

"But if you tell us what you know about Mr. Big's involvement with the Night Howlers, I'm sure that we can make sure that Mr. Big is occupied with other things when you get out of jail."

She expected Weaselton to beg for ZPD's help at the thought of Mr. Big coming after him. Instead, the weasel began to chuckle.

"You think the likes of you can put Mr. Big away? I bet you've never even seen him."

"I've seen him." She had, in the most generous sense of the word.

_Just as long as you never mention how you met Mr. Big to Weaselton, or it'll be yet another mammal who'll never let you live it down._

Weaselton seemed to have made it his duty to school Judy on the ways of Mr. Big. "Then you should know that the cops can't touch him. Yeah, buzz around, keep tabs on the mammals he meets, but arrest him? Nah. And he'll do everything he can to keep it that way, because police business is bad for business. You can't fool me, copper. Put me away, I'm done."

"Are you sure you want to do that? We have an eyewitness for the first theft that can identify you, Wessleton. That means jail time."

But Weaselton really was done. Even calling him by the wrong name hadn't provoked any retort, only a shit eating grin.

She'd have to take him to Clawhauser for processing, without the request for a warrant. The licence plate records weren't any help either. Judy had run the plates while waiting for Weaselton to be transferred from the holding cell to her charge. As expected, on record the licence plate she'd gotten at the spa didn't seem to have anything to do with Mr. Big. And now she couldn't tie Weaselton to Mr. Big either.

_You can't touch us, Carrots, we've been doing this since we were born. You sure you want to go down that rabbit hole?_

It didn't matter what anyone thought. Both the limo that Otterton had taken and the one Wilde used were from the same limo rental service. There had to be something at the rental office. There had to be something to pin the disappearance of Otterton to Mr. Big.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't take credit for smol bean for Finnick - I saw it on a tumblr post that I can't find now ;_; Honeykooky is all me - because Honey is kooky like a honey cookie!
> 
> ... Sorry I seem to have borrowed Judy's inner Nick voice.


	4. You got me good

It was almost like the start of a riddle – at a table with a polar bear, two rodents and a fox, guess who felt the smallest?

The right answer was Nick. Amenities at Koslov's Palace came in two sizes – polar bear and rodent. Since Nick couldn't squeeze his girlish figure into a rodent sized chair no matter how hard he tried, that left him dwarfed in a wooden chair of matching set with Koslov's, who was large even for a polar bear. The same went for his oversized cup of tea, which he didn't intend to touch. It was Russian tea. It had jam in it.

Another reason why Nick was the odd one out was that he was the only one who was freezing. Being artic animals, the Bigs and Koslov found a table on the open air veranda overlooking the ski slope refreshing. Nick didn't have any winter coat to speak of, and his suit alone wasn’t cutting it.

But he had to be here. In the years that he'd gotten involved with Mr. Big's gang, he'd learned that the stakes when it came to hustles involving Mr. Big were either getting iced, or getting a handsome reward. Nick had come down hard on the latter so far, and he wanted to keep it that way.

That was why Nick couldn't rely on Miss Big to tell the story alone. Miss Big played hard and fast with facts. If she shared the wrong details, then Nick could find himself looking at the wrong side of an ice floe. Or maybe thrown off the mountain – they were at a ski resort after all.

But maybe he was overthinking things. So far the recount had been going well – Fru Fru had started with how Nick's call had saved her from being caught up in a scurry. "It's amazing that he knew to look for me," she gushed.

Now was Nick's chance to shape the narrative, putting more distance between the bunny and himself. "I saw a chase going into Little Rodentia, and as a larger mammal myself I knew how badly that could go. Right, Koslov?"

Another thing Nick had learned while with Mr. Big was more important to know everyone than to know everything. There were things he couldn't know. He wasn't born a polar bear or a rodent. He would never understand why the Godfather had picked a polar bear to be godfather to his own daughter, and other intricacies of species specific gangs. But he did know that Koslov, as doting godfather to Fru Fru, would be familiar with the rules of when larger mammals could go into Little Rodentia.

Koslov's grave nod was exactly what Nick had been looking for. Now that Mr. Big and Koslov knew that Nick had been looking out for Fru Fru's best interests, perhaps he could take a moment to appreciate the pristine snow of the ski slope and let Fru Fru cover more of the story.

The cold must have sent Nick's brain into hibernation. Fru Fru finished off her description of the scurry with, "And then Nicky leapt at me out of nowhere!"

No matter how Nick thought about it, he didn't understand how Mr. Big could glower so well with just his eyebrows. Maybe it was a physical thing, like the way Koslov didn't need to crack his knuckles like Raymond did to show that he was serious. Koslov just had to exist to seem intimidating, and his silence matched with Mr. Big's judging glare made it seem the temperature had dropped a few more notches.

Miss Big's next words weren't any more reassuring. "I didn't know his paws were so big. He could sweep me off the road with just one paw."

"I'm sure Koslov has bigger paws," Nick hurried to add. "Besides, what was that on the road again? Some part of a building?"

"It was a giant donut! It got knocked off the top of the donut shop on Mousechester Boulevard, and went right towards Mousy's where I was."

"And that's when I swept Miss Big off the road and out of danger."

"There was a bunny cop that helped too. She grabbed the donut before it could hurt either of us!"

"Did you say bunny cop?" Mr. Big's tone was thoughtful. "I always thought the ZPD hired for brawn first and checked for brains as an afterthought."

"Excellent point, sir, and if I might build on that a little more, maybe the bunny was only _dressed_ as a cop."

"Cop or dressed as a cop, she could've still been behind that dangerous donut. Was she?"

The first answer that came to Nick's mind was not the safe answer. But Fru Fru had voiced it anyway. "Daddy! How could you even think that? She saved my life, just as Nicky did."

"Of course baby, of course. Daddy just has to be sure that she wasn't saving you to make herself feel better about putting you in danger."

"She didn't! Tell him, Nicky!"

"Just so everyone's on the right page, I didn't see what the bunny was up to before I got to that boulevard. But I did see that it was Weaselton who knocked the donut from the building."

"That weasel doesn't know how to watch his tongue around me, and now he's stepping out of line around my daughter?"

This was as good a chance as any for Nick to show Mr. Big that he had been making progress. "That's not all. He also stole a whole bag of these plants from Otterton before he went missing." Nick placed the bulb that he'd borrowed from Hopps at the foot of Mr. Big's chair.

Koslov's paw dwarfed the bulb that he held to his nose to sniff. Done, he wiped it on his sleeve and held it out Mr. Big to take a whiff too. The shrew steepled his fingers, but his thoughts he kept to himself.

His daughter didn't share his patience. "What is that?" She demanded.

When Koslov spoke, it was to Mr. Big instead of to Fru Fru. "Do you remember the boxer they called The Animal?"

Fru Fru already wasn't pleased by the direction the conversation was taking. "Ugh. I don't know how males can stand to watch mammals smack each other around."

Fru Fru's outbursts were too common to faze Mr. Big. "I recall that mammal," he mused from behind the cover of his fingers. "He got into the one of the Families, swapped the boxing ring for the streets but kept his boxing nickname. Remind me what'd he do when he was a soldier again?"

"Chewed someone's cheek off." Koslov's bland voice did not do that juicy tidbit any favours at all, but Nick's blood was already chilled below the surrounding temperature. That sounded like Otterton's attack on Manchas.

If Koslov made that connection, his nerves of steel allowed him to continue. "His nickname wasn’t the only thing he brought with him out of the ring. He had these pills he used to pop."

"I thought drugs were banned in sports?" asked Fru Fru. "Don't they have all those - whaddya call them? - doping bodies and stuff to keep things fair?"

"My child, as long as there have been rules, there have been mammals who try to get around them. A little more adrenaline here, something extra for both the asthma and performance... bulbs like this one were used for performance, weren't they?"

"Yes," Koslov confirmed. "They were known here as Purple Punch, because they were especially popular with boxers. Word was that it enhanced natural instincts, and let them know when to deliver the knockout." The next bit was delivered with a growl. "I wouldn't know. My enforcers and I never needed them." 

Fru Fru was quick to assure, "Yeah you're better than those mammals who think it's worth getting addicted to win fights!"

"These? These aren't addictive." Mr. Big touched the shoot with a cautious claw tip. "The experience, I hear, the experience of being faster and stronger and closer to base nature is addictive for weak-minded mammals. That's why I don't want none of my guys taking this. I don't care how a mammal makes his money, but that kind of weakness isn't tolerated."

"So as long as Otterton was just selling them and not eating them he's in the clear." Nick forced a smile he wasn't feeling. Must be the frost bite setting in. "I guess I'll find out when I see him then."

"Maybe. The Otterton I know wouldn't take drugs. He's had plenty of opportunity before now. Add Weaselton's robbery, which smells to me like a custom job, and I'm not liking the set-up." Mr Big prodded the plant again. "As much as it may pain Mrs. Otterton, I think you should approach this with caution. Take as much time as you need, Nicky."

 

With Mr Big's warning, Nick might have put off his meeting with Manchas if he wasn't already late. When he'd arranged to meet Manchas, he hadn't been counting on having to detour to deliver Fru Fru back to her concerned father and other surprises.

By the time Nick followed his driver into the break room at the limo rental, Manchas had been there long enough to resort to pacing with claws clacking on the linoleum. He started when the door slammed shut behind Nick, his one eye growing wide.

"... I think you've had enough coffee." Nick pried the paper cup from Manchas' grip and tried not to notice the claw marks scoured across the sides. "Mind if I warm up a little in here?"

Manchas' paw grasped as if looking for something else to cling to. Nick hoped that wouldn't turn out to be him. "I – I thought you wanted to see the car," Manchas stammered.

"That I do, buddy. But the car's waited a whole day. It can wait a little longer."

When Nick busied himself at the snack table, Manchas sank slowly back into a seat, blinking his eye as if the lights were suddenly too bright. The other had been taped over with dry, white gauze. Nick took the lack of blood as a good sign. He didn't want any more reminders of the photo he'd seen of Manchas.

... though it might be a little too late for that. Nick considered checking if there was any alcohol in this building, but he needed the both of them to be coherent. Getting shit faced could wait for later. In the end Nick settled for some peanuts and coffee straight from the pot without any milk stirred in. The full heat of the coffee was welcome after an evening sitting out on the ski slope. Judging from the brief dash from the limo to the building, Nick guessed the parking lot of the limo service was going to be pretty cold too. He drank enough coffee to fortify against the cold, then topped up his coffee to keep his paws warm. He also picked up a cup of rooibos tea for Manchas – Manchas was starting to paw at his bandage, and Nick did not want to see what happened if Manchas disturbed his wound too much.

Nick took a moment to check his phone after Manchas had taken his tea, just to be sure that Manchas had switched his worrying to his cup – with the way Manchas was working the plastic over, Nick was probably going to see spilled tea at some point. There was a thank you message from Fru Fru, and a cryptic text from Honey that either meant Weaselton hadn't left ZPD HQ or he'd been spirited away by secret agents. Had Honey seen any other ZPD -

No, he couldn't finish this sentence or he'd be here all night. He pocketed his phone and turned his attention back to Manchas.

"Alright, Inky, you know where the car is or we gotta get a search party for that?"

"I checked with the office when I drew the keys - " Manchas fumbled in his pockets, but ended up spilling its contents across the floor. Apparently Manchas didn't believe in wallets. Nick plucked the keys from the mess of coins and string and whatever else Manchas had pocketed.

"How many days until the doc says you can take the eyepatch off?" Nick asked as Manchas grabbed pawfuls of odds and ends to shove back in his pocket.

"I - I think it was another week?"

"Sounds like you need more rest. Just point out where you and Otterton were sitting, and I think you can some shut eye for your eye, hmm?"

"Alright," Manchas sounded out his agreement as if he was hesitating over the meaning of the word. Nick held open the door for the both of them, before heading back out into the Tundratown night.

Without the warmth of the sun, Nick felt a lot colder than he'd been the ski slope. The snow his feet were crunching into was a stark contrast to the hot coffee in his paws. As a fellow resident of Rainforest District, Manchas must have felt the cold as keenly as Nick, though he'd chosen to hunch into his jacket against the cold.

The cold kept their pace brisk. There was enough ambient light from nearby lights for them to pick their way through the parked cars to their destination. The car they were headed to was parked alone in its row. Nick glanced at the licence plate, with its numbers so much like the ones copied into a notebook, and wondered - 

About nothing. There was nothing to wonder about.

Having reached the car, Manchas seemed uncertain about what to do next. Nick pressed the electronic key that he'd palmed from Manchas. The simultaneous beep and the tumbling of locks meant Nick was in the clear to open the doors.

There was nothing interesting in the driver's section – too much polar bear fur and a CD player that was paused mid-way through a Jerry Vole track. Nick opened the backseat door.

He almost regretted it. Mr. Otterton seemed to have had a very bad day.

The claw marks all over the interior of the limo stood out in stark relief to Nick, because he had just been in a limo like this one earlier today. He knew that Mr. Big wouldn't stand to have his monogrammed glasses tossed all over the car. Or let any of his mammals put claw marks into the seats, even in the most rowdy scuffle.

The sight of the claw marks seemed to have startled Manchas into animation. "He was an _animal_ , down on all fours like a savage..." His wild gestures were spilling his tea into the snow, but he didn't seem to notice. "I was in the driver's seat, but the privacy screen was open so I could see everything. Or so I thought when he disappeared from sight. I peered over, only for him to attack! There was no warning, he just kept yelling about the Night Howlers. Over and over, the Night Howlers!"

There was indeed a purple splotch on the backseat that almost smelled like the receipt of Night Howlers from Otterton's shop. But the scent was blended in with other scents. Nick leaned closer to the stain, trying to get a better whiff.

"What are you doing?"

Was this how Hopps felt when she popped out of his birthday cake? Nick looked out of the car to make sure that it was her. It was – the bunny that kept turning up like a bad penny was indeed glaring at Nick with her paws planted on her hips.

"This is a crime scene! Step away from the car and don't even think of tampering with anything," Hopps said, with only her no-nonsense tone of voice to back her up. It was good enough for Manchas, who had dropped into a cowering ball of black on the snowy ground.

Nick knew better. "It's going to be an even bigger crime scene if Mr. Big finds you here. Not even your warrant can save you – you do have a warrant, don't you?"

"The thing is, you don't need a warrant if you have probable cause, and I'm pretty sure I saw some shifty low-lives skulking around a car. What were you trying to do with it?"

"Please don't arrest me!" Manchas wailed from under the cover of his arms. "I can never work again in this town if you put me away, I need the job - !" He cut himself off with a strange whistling sound.

"She's not going to arrest anyone. Right, Carrots? Can't you see this poor mammal is a victim? C'mon, Inky, show her your eye."

Manchas didn't answer, grunting as he shuddered in his hunched over position. Even Hopps seemed to realise she'd gone too far. "Are you OK?"

Manchas lifted his paws away from his face. It was another variation of the image of Manchas Nick had seen on his phone, except that the Manchas in front of him was the Frankenstein version, with stitches holding his jagged edges together. What really caught Nick's attention was Manchas' uninjured eye – there was too much green around the black now narrowed to a slit, conveying a hunger that reminded Nick of Manchas' claws on the plastic cup earlier. Nick could only stare, even as Manchas uncurled himself to drop to a sinuous curve of menace slinking on all fours.

Someone was tugging at Nick's arm. "Run," Hopps whispered, before her panic bled through. "RUN!"

Nick ran. A part of him was vaguely aware of spilling his hot coffee, causing Manchas to shy away with a hiss. The rest of him was more concerned that Hopps and he were running towards high locked gates oh god were they going to be able to get out?

They had to. Nick threw himself at the wire mesh of the gate and started to clamber up. Now he just had to get over -

Manchas threw himself at the gate hard enough to shake it, undoing all of Nick's hard work by sending him crashing into the snow. Hopps was already tugging on his arm. "This way!"

"This way" was through a hole burrowed under the fence that Hopps was half leaning out of. As Manchas gathered himself for another pounce, she pulled Nick in with her.

It had started as a rabbit sized hole, but Hopps was now putting the finishing touches on widening it enough for a fox. Nick scrambled after her, hoping it wasn't large enough for a jaguar.

He glanced behind to see a jaguar face peering down the hole, before a large paw shot in to try and claw Nick's muzzle. He dodged, following Hopps out of the burrow to the open streets of Tundratown.

This late, the neon shop signs and street signs only illuminated the undisturbed snow and ice on the streets. For a mammal without pads Hopps ran well, planting her feet so she didn't skid as she ran. She even had time to radio, "Officer Hopps to dispatch!"

"I don't think a road block is going to stop Manchas."

"ZPD has centralised dispatch," she said, scowling at her unresponsive radio. "Clawhauser? CLAWHAUSER!"

"Hopps!" the radio finally crackled back.

Hopps knew Zootopia well enough, though it was clear it was textbook knowledge. "We're heading down Krimsky Street near Okie-ya-brus-kya metro station - "

"It's Ok-tya-brskya!" That reminded Nick of where they could go to escape Manchas, who had already reached the same street as them and was attempting to close the distance. But his scrabbling paws weren't finding purchase on parts of the street – the icy parts. "How good are you at ice skating?"

"Good enough, why?"

"Let's hope we can give him the slip with some ice. Follow me!"

They took the next turn into Gorky Park. One mammal had the bright idea of covering all the paths in the park with ice. That meant mammals could skate their way around the park, instead of walking.

It was the slippery path that Nick was counting on now. The transition from snow to ice was startling, and Nick wobbled as he tried to keep his sense of balance. Hopps, who was lighter and had hit the ice at a greater speed than Nick, had shot out across the surface. A quick grab of a nearby railing set her to rights, but cost her her radio. The both of them switched to a more controlled slide over the ice, though a lot slower than they would have managed with proper skates.

They didn't have time to get proper skates or Hopps' radio. Manchas had closed in enough to hit the path shortly after them. They gained some time as he lost his balance, paws shooting out from under him as he shifted his full weight to the ice.

For now, Nick's gamble worked – as rational animals who knew how to ice skate, both he and Hopps could better coordinate their movements and shift their weight to mostly stay upright through the turns. Manchas would wipe out on those corners, but he was still doing pretty well on the straights for someone from the tropics. They just had to reach their destination before Manchas.

Hopps spotted it first. "There! Head to the ice rafts!"

That was the tourist friendly name for ice floes on the streams that ran through Tundratown. The fast flowing water, usually a deterrent for Nick, was probably going to be a 100 times worse for Manchas. If they could get there, they'd probably be free of Manchas. The only problem was the steep slope between them and the stream, and they were running out of icy path.

Nick landed the dismount from ice back to snow. Hopps was not so lucky, her weight counting against her again as she shot off the path to tumble down the slope towards the icy water.

"Carrots!" Nick started to slide after her, only for something large and black to soar over his head. Manchas had leapt off the path to land in front of Nick and cut off his escape route.

Nick didn't want to go running off into the dark, where his chances of surviving were low. Here, he could still grab Hopps and flee. "Buddy, from one predator to another - "

Manchas pounced.

Nick threw his arms over his head, but the bite of teeth never came. Instead, he heard a metallic thunking sound and Manchas' growl of frustration. When he dared a peek, he saw Manchas cuffed to a nearby lamppost. Hopps, whole and breathing, was still holding on to the side of the cuff she'd latched onto the lamppost.

Nick inched towards her past the threat of teeth and claws. "Now, I can tell you’re a little tense, so I’m just gonna give you a little personal space – "

He saw Manchas' paw shoot out, too close for Nick to entirely dodge. He turned himself so he took the blow mostly from the paw pad, but Manchas had his claws out. Nick had to bite back a shout of pain as claws raked across his belly.

Nick's landing wasn't that comfortable either. He went crashing straight into Hopps to go sliding down the slope again. Hopps wrapped an arm around his waist and kicked out against some railings, which sent them sliding up a nearby ice wall instead of down into the water. Nick grabbed on to the top of the wall at the same time as Hopps. They both climbed up onto the narrow ledge at their own pace.

Away from gnashing teeth, realisation had time to sink in. "You saved my life," Nick marvelled.

Hopps' answering grin was infectious. "Well that's what we do at the ZP – "

A splintering sound cut her off. The ice wall was not designed to take the weight of two mammals, and under their weight it cracked before listing to one side.

It swung out over the side with deadly water, but gravity was pulling Nick and Judy to the side with a series of icy arches leading down to another street. Nick's claws found no purchase on the ice wall now turned ice slide. They went hurtling towards the arches like a pair of pinballs.

Thankfully, a snow drift was at the end of their mad slide down to the street. The both of them shook off snow to find the lights of the ZPD patrol cars flashing over them. Doors slammed. The first to approach them was a buffalo that Nick had only seen on the news.

Nick sneaked as much snow as he could to staunch his wound from Manchas. With the ZPD police chief now involved, Nick might have to make a dash for it. But he had to be sure the rabbit that saved his life wasn't now in trouble herself.


	5. I'm under your spell

There were so many important details Judy should remember about this evening - finding the car that Otterton was last seen in, escaping the savage jaguar, leading her fellow officers to what should have been a breakthrough in the case...

But all she could focus on was Bogo's outstretched hoof, indisputable and unwavering proof that he wanted her badge. All she could focus on was defeat and the cold metal of her badge under her paws.

The "No" she heard did not fit the scene at all.

"What did you say, fox?" Chief Bogo grit out, his tone twisting especially on "fox" as if the word itself tasted sour.

"Sorry, what I said was _no_ , she will not be giving you her badge."

Every time Judy thought she knew Nick Wilde, he did something unexpected. When she thought he gave her a clue, he meant to shatter her illusions about Otterton; when she thought he was mocking her about being a meter maid, he'd led her to catch Weaselton, although that might have been a ploy to nick some Night Howlers.

This time Wilde had taken the jibes that he had aimed at her all day and turned their sharp points towards the Chief instead. "You gave her a clown vest, a three-wheel joke-mobile and two days to solve a missing mammal case, when she had to do everything alone from taking statements to making arrests? Yeah, no wonder she needed to get help from a fox, none of you guys were going to help her. Just as she had no help when she arrested a weasel today."

Judy had enough daily discussions with the Chief to know that the Chief had no qualms in driving his points home, usually at a decibel that let everyone know the flaws in whatever explanation Judy had presented. But there was no bellowing from the Chief in the face of Wilde's facts, even when Wilde started counting off the hours that Judy had left. "- we have more than a day to find our Mr. Otterton, and that's exactly what we're going to do. So if you'll excuse us, we have a case to crack. Good day."

The sight of the Chief, stone-faced and breath curling white in the Tundratown air, assured Judy that she did not need to say more. She turned to follow Wilde, who had swung a wooden gate to keep the ice raft he wanted in place. "Officer Hopps," he said, gesturing to the ice raft.

She stepped on and Wilde joined her, tugging the gate behind him to release the floe. The flowing water soon carried them out of sight of the other ZPD officers. Icicles dangling from natural trees and manmade bridges alike hung overhead, shining neon from the lights of Tundratown caught within their length. Judy thought Wilde would be as bold as the lights and crow about the victory he'd pulled on Chief Bogo.

But she'd thought wrong again. Wilde was as silent as the snow blanketing the banks on either side.

"Thank you," said Judy. For a moment she thought she had been too quiet, and her words had disappeared into the winter wind like the trailing mist from her breath.

"Anyone with eyes can see how much that badge means to you."

She hadn't thought Wilde had noticed, with all his talk about fake badges and how he almost wrestled her badge from her at his birthday party. She raised her paws to the metal chilled by the surroundings, a reminder of how she had almost taken it off.

The gesture prompted a snort from Wilde, and a little of the Wilde from before their deadly chase in Tundratown returned. "There you go with your tell again. Never let them see that they get to you."

"So things do get to you?"

"No... I mean, not anymore. But I was emotionally unbalanced like you once."

"Har har."

"No, it's true. I didn't think it at the time since I was 15, maybe 16. I thought I was over things like emotions until my Mom fell sick. She kept upping the dosage and seeing more doctors, until one day the pills and the doctors we could afford weren't enough anymore."

Wilde paused on that memory long enough that Judy thought he wasn't going to continue. But then he spoke with so much fierce pride that seemed to carry his words farther than they should on the night air. "She wasn't going to give up just like that and she wasn't going to let me fight her fight for her. She decided to mortgage our apartment, hell even sell it if she had to. We could squeeze in with friends, because, by God, she was going to scrape together enough money under her own power. Except Zootopia doesn't think very much about the efforts of predators.

We went from bank to bank. The first few were too polite to say why we didn't qualify for a mortgage. But then we went to a bank where the lemmings weren't shy to tell us exactly what they thought of us. That an apartment in Happytown was worth nothing, that we ought to have bought a better apartment when we had the cash, but what else could they expect of a pair of shiftless foxes, expecting handouts from the bank when the son was old enough to work. They knew by saying that, they'd be able to get Mom to give up. Because it was written in every action that she cared about me."

That seemed to be the end of the story to Wilde, for he let the lap of water against the ice raft fill the silence. But Judy had to ask, "What happened next?"

"Well, they were right about one thing. I was old enough to work. I went to Koslov, found a job **and** someone who actually gives loans to predators. Don't look at me like that, Carrots, Koslov didn't lie about the type of job or the interest rates being high enough to choke on. I went into the deal with my eyes open."

"But it's been years since you went to Koslov."

"There's no better job for me, Fluff. If the world’s only gonna see a fox as shifty and untrustworthy, there’s no point in trying to be anything else. "

She couldn't let him hold on that idea, not when he'd done so much to change her mind. "Nick, you are so much more than that..."

The touch on his arm seemed to unsettle both Nick and the raft, the both of them swaying as Nick pulled away from Judy. "Boy, that sure is a lot of snow coming down. Bet that's why the streets are so empty."

Nick was doing something unexpected again, turning a heartfelt moment into a joke as he took on the persona of a newscaster. Judy took his arm again, reluctant to let the moment go. For the first time since the bar, she felt like she wanted to know the Nick in front her better. She had to let him know she wouldn't mock him for it. "Seriously it's ok..."

He grabbed her by her arms and she had the sudden notion that Nick might mock her instead, especially when he shushed her. As much as she hated to admit it, that had become the norm for them why had she let it -

But Nick had started to point up at the buildings and street lights. "There are traffic cameras everywhere. Whatever happened to Manchas - "

"The traffic cameras would have caught it!" Judy realised. She punched him in the arm, happy to have this helpful Nick with her. "Pretty sneaky, Slick! So we'll head to the station to check the traffic cameras - "

"You mean you'll head to the station to check the jam cams."

It sounded like another opening for a jibe, but Judy could do better than that. She had to. "It was your idea to check the jam cams. Maybe you'll have other bright ideas when you see the video!"

"Since I just laid into Chief Buffalo Butt, I'm pretty sure I'm persona non grata at the station. And that's already skipping over the issues my boss has with cops. So sorry, Fluff, you'll have to prove you can be a big city cop on your own. Show up Chief Bing Bong for me!" He saluted, then leapt to shore.

It would have been a grand exit if he hadn't collapsed face first into the snow upon landing.

"Nick!" Judy leapt after him. "Nick! What's wrong?"

She turned him over and her heart skipped a beat at the blood showing up stark red against the white snow. An equally bright red splotch had shown up on Nick's white shirt.

"Guess I didn't pack it with enough snow," Nick groaned, then scooped up some snow from where he lay.

Judy grabbed his paw before he could slap snow onto his wound. "Don't do that! It could get infected. You need a hospital."

"Carrots, I work for Mr. Big, and he does not like his mammals leaving records in places like hospitals. So no hospitals for this fox."

"You could die if you don't get your wound treated!"

"Let me see, certain death by icing if I go to the hospital, or potential death if I handle this my way." He pretended to weigh the options in his paws. "Well, seeing that I haven't died from the other times I've been hurt, Fluff, I know I can handle this myself."

"You don't have to." Nick didn't agree, because he was already trying to get to his feet. Judy let out a sigh and slipped under his arm on his uninjured side to prop him up. As he turned a surprised look on her, she explained, "At least let me get you to a place that isn't snowing before I go back to the station. I have a safe house."

She took it as a good sign when he didn't pull away. Finally he asked, "Do you have a first aid kit there?"

Fighting down a grin, she chirped, "Yes, yes there is."

He leaned a little bit more weight on her. "Well I hope you don't mind a three legged race to our destination."

 

Judy had retrieved her meter maid car from Rainforest district to get to the limo service office, so it hadn't actually been a three legged race all the way back to her apartment. Nick seemed well enough to head into her apartment block on his own. Still, she kept an eye on him as they headed up the stairs. He had been quiet all through the drive from Tundratown, which she took to mean that his wound was still bothering him.

He did speak when the sounds of Judy's neighbours arguing reached them even in the corridor, "I thought you said this was a safehouse."

"Yeah, safe house, with a space in the middle. A house that is safe."

"That is an amazing trick," Nick pretended to gush. "Whoever did you learn that from?"

"Oh I couldn't possibly reveal my sources," she hedged, and used the excuse to open her door and flick the lights on. "Alright, you can find somewhere to rest while I get the first aid kit."

"There's not much choice, Carrots. Are you sure you don't want to live in your cake? I'm sure it's more roomy."

She was not going to blush with mortification, although she did slam her door shut. Talking this way... was simply what Nick did. She had to think this way if she wasn't going to wrong-foot her conversations again. She settled for a cheery, "If you can find one with running water and electricity, let me know!"

The first aid kit Judy kept wasn't as well stocked as the one on the farm, since Zootopia was large enough to boast several hospitals rather than the one main clinic Bunnyburrrow had. But she did have bandages and other medicines for disinfecting and cleaning wounds. She laid out all those now next to her laptop as Nick sat on her bed.

She doused her hands in rubbing alcohol, and shook off the chill. "Alright, take your shirt off."

"Carrots, if you wanted to get me out of my clothes you needn't come up with excuses."

How could someone look so smug just unbuttoning his shirt? "Can you save that kind of talk for when you're not bleeding on my sheets?"

"So once I stop bleeding, I can - ouch!"

"Don't be a baby, this is just rubbing alcohol. Weren't you stuffing snow in this a while ago?"

"Snow is ice, ice is numbing, which this - " He let out another hiss of pain as Judy started cleaning the next cut, then said the rest all in one rush. "- is most definitely not."

"Well, I suppose it's better to be numb as your stomach turns into a rotting mess from infection." His last cut was more of a scratch. Judy dabbed that with alcohol too, just to be sure. She left those to dry as she went back to her table for antiseptic and a roll of bandages.

"Didn't the place where you picked up your medical skills teach you bedside manners?"

"The ZPD trained us to be efficient, and at home we knew each other too well." She turned around to find Nick with an expectant look, complete with raised eyebrow. "Accidents with farming equipment can get brutal, and what we do as soon as it happens could make a difference."

"I'm never going to the country. Vicious bunnies, vicious farm equipment -"

"I'm sure Zootopia is incredibly safe with savage jaguars."

"Just the one. That you'll catch to ease my mind, wouldn't you?"

"Once I finish this." Having crossed the room, she started to smear the antiseptic starting from the shallowest of Nick's wounds. Now that Nick wasn't whining, she found herself lingering on the wounds. She thought of sharp claws raking over the exact lines her fingers were following now and her heart twisted. Nick wouldn't have gotten this injury if it wasn't for her. No wonder he had asked her to catch Manchas. "Once I finish this, I will definitely find Manchas," she promised Nick in the gentle voice her mother said worked wonders on crying kids. "Hold up the hem of your shirt. I'll be done with wrapping as soon as I can."

His tops rustled before landing on her bed.

Oh. Oh. The last time she'd seen the pale fur of his belly was -

A whole host of lurid memories stampeded through her head like an entire herd of elephants. She dove for the bandages to give herself some time to recover. "Can't you behave for even a minute?" she groused to the bandages. When had the sterile package become so hard to pick open?

"I'm just making it easy for you." And wasn't that a lovely double entendre since Nick hadn't said what he was making easier. She wished that "easy" included unwrapping bandages as well.

She settled for ripping the package open, and had to fumble to catch the roll before it hit the ground or unrolled entirely. With both her cheeks and her ears burning hot, she looked up with dread at what expression Nick could be wearing.

It turned out to be an expression of perfect innocence, but she still couldn't rule out that he probably had been laughing at her earlier. She tried to focus on the tip of Nick's ear. She could get the bandage around his stomach, without thinking about how the position they were in now was almost an embrace -

"You know, it's really hard for you to wrap a wound without using your paws to smooth it out," he pointed out.

"I'm trying my best," she grit out.

"Do you need a paws on demonstration?" He had to be choosing his words, there was no way he could have echoed her words at the bar by chance.

Her suspicions were confirmed when his paws covered hers to pull the bandage taut against the small of his back. He pressed the paw holding the end of the bandage against the flat of his stomach. Her other paw that held the roll of bandage he dragged across soft white fur until their joined paws reached the extent of where Nick could reach.

Judy made herself look down, following the line of his ear to the top of his head, down even more to meet his gaze. Gone was the expression of perfect innocence. The expression Nick wore now was closer to his expression at the bar they'd first met in, when he'd leaned in and told her the filthiest things.

But the Judy of today had held her own against Nick's wiles even when she'd only been wearing a playbunny outfit. She could handle him. "I need my paws back to finish bandaging."

He paused long enough that she thought they'd remain in this stalemate for the rest of the night. But then he shifted his paws so he was holding in place the bandages rather than her paws.

She dropped her gaze to focus on her work. As reward for his cooperation she let her paws linger, making sure to press where the edge of the bandage met silky fur. She took her time with each stroke, dragging it out across the small of his back, the plane of his stomach, repeat.

But she had to stop when she'd run out of bandage and excuses to touch him. With some reluctance, she tied both ends of the bandage together with a secure knot. "There, all done."

Nick tested the knot with a cautious finger. "You sure, Carrots? I... I think..." He slumped back on the bed.

"Nick!" Heart in her mouth, she checked his bandage and found no blood seeping through. But the way his paws were fluttering was worrying, as was his wheezing. She clambered along the bed to check his pallor, ears tilted to better make out what he was saying between wheezes.

"Tight... can't breathe... need... CPR..." He jabbed a finger at his muzzle.

Right. This was Nick Wilde she was dealing with after all; he would pretend he was dying just to wheedle what he wanted out of her. "Are you sure?" she asked in her sweetest voice. "It's not anything like how it goes in the shows. I'll probably crack your ribs." She leaned on his uninjured side a little to press her point home, but he simply let out a rattling breath and slumped even further. He'd even let his tongue loll out, how daft.

And yet she wanted to kiss that daft expression off his face.

It would be so easy. She was already braced over him. Their muzzles were only inches apart. If she leaned in -

She had never been so aware of their differences as she was now - her shorter muzzle to his long snout, her tense arch over his studied sprawl, and the press of hard Kevlar and police badge against his lanky body that knew well the touch of Mafia tailoring. For the first time, they both knew who the other was.

And yet they kissed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear readers, you have two options at this point.
> 
> You can either imagine that they made out (lame) and that's where the next chapter picks up again.
> 
> Or you can read my side story where Nick and Judy find get to the sweet sweet lovin' (read: erotica) we've been owed for more than 25k worth of words now!
> 
> If you're going to read my side story, you're in luck - **It ain't my fault** should be posted in a week's time. Please check it out once it's up!
> 
> If you're gonna wait, sorry to say that since I was too busy writing erotica, the next chapter does not exist yet. I'll try to write it in two weeks, but the next chapter might be late.


	6. I don't know what you do

Nick had been in a number of Mafia safehouses, some with a threadbare excuse for a roof, some luxurious, some that even came with their own attached doctor. The "safe house" he was now using was completely different from the others.

Right now the only entertainment he had was a bunny cop named Judy Hopps. Since all she was doing was transferring her gear to a new ZPD uniform, it wasn't that exciting. But Nick could make his own fun.

"So let me get this straight, Fluff." Judy - it was hard to think of her as Hopps when he was sprawled upside down and mostly naked on her bed - paused in picking a microscopic fleck of dust off her badge. "You polish your badge every day before heading to work?"

"Well, not every day," she blustered. "Zootopia's just a lot more polluted than Bunnyburrow, and we did get dunked in a snow drift! So just in case the melted snow messes it up - "

She probably could have gone on all day, so Nick let his broad grin add a bit of wheedling to his tone. "That's adorable!"

"Don't call me adorable," she said, and wasn't that interesting that her words no longer held the same bite as the last time she snapped off that warning about calling her cute.

"I can't help it. You're just so darling, lovable, bonny - "

"Bonnie's my mom, not me." Finally there was a little of that ribbing, though it was more a gentle nudge than a sharp elbow meant to hurt. "While you can go on about adorable and loveable things all day, some of us do have jobs to do."

"And here I thought your job was to keep me safe. Isn't this your safe house, Carrots? Whatever will I do if my wound acts up?"

"I'm pretty sure you said your wound was fine five minutes ago."

Her comment would have been more convincing if she hadn't left off adjusting her uniform. That gave Nick the confidence to claim, "I think I still need mouth-to-mouth. Just as a precaution."

"That's still not how CPR works," she huffed. But she'd already sat down on the bed. His upside down position let her trail fingers down his bared throat before she took his muzzle between her paws. At her touch he let his eyes drift close.

Maybe it was the different position that made this kiss the slowest and gentlest of the kisses they'd shared so far. He could smell the more intense scent of her along her chin, feel the tickle of her ears as they brushed his chest. The new position had them trying different angles - full mouthed, the slow suck of lower lips between teeth, his playful lap at her nose.

But the kiss still had to end, and Judy finally sighed, "I should get to the station."

"You have your 48 hour deadlines and all. Which, by the way, you were crazy for agreeing to."

"Well thanks to you I've got a full day of buffer." She finally plucked her new uniform off the clothes rack at the foot of her bed, though she paused with the uniform draped over her arm. "Are you sure you can't come with me? We've worked well together."

"Am I cop? No, no I am not." The full rack of clothes did give him an idea. "However, if you're willing to trade that for this - " He slid out of bed to pluck a pink plaid blouse from the rack. "Maybe we can stick together."

She wrinkled her nose at her own clothes. "I can't wear this to work."

"No no, you won't be wearing this to the station. See, I know everybody, and I've got a pal who might show you the jam cam system too."

"Who? Someone at City Hall?"

"Well she definitely sees as much. But she doesn't like the offices in City Hall, says that it stifles her style, so she's got her own personalised set up. Which just happens to be a bit more welcoming of wiseguys than your usual ZPD station."

"If that helps us find our savage jaguar, let's get dressed and go." Before she could head off with her police uniform, Nick placed a paw on her arm to stop her.

"My pal's a private citizen, so it probably won't be so nice to turn up at her door in full uniform."

"So she's not welcoming of ZPD officers?" Judy laughed as if the thought was ridiculous. "I've been investigating in my uniform all this time, and there hasn't been any problem with it."

"Fluff, are you forgetting Manchas? I'm pretty sure there were problems at the limo service."

"That was because the entire place was tied up with Mr. Big," The perkiness in her assertion faded as the implications of her words set in. "Your pal - she isn't associated with Mr. Big, is she?"

"It depends on how you look at it." Like how it was supposed to be _Honey_ who had problems with seeing Judy, not the other way around. "I mean, she is associated with me, and I'm associated with Mr. Big, so technically - "

"She is," said Judy, and wasn't it amazing how two words could carry so much bite. "When were you going to tell me?"

"It would have been much better for all of us if you didn't know - "

"Why would it be better? So you could laugh at me when I found out? Like you did at the spa, or with the Ottertons? Or how about we go back all the way to the bar?"

"Did those matter once you found out? No. So if you want my help with the lead - "

"I don't need this kind of help!"

"This kind of help?" Nick repeated, wondering why the hollowed out feeling in his chest made the words seem to echo. "The kind of help that only the Mafia is willing to give? The kind of help that you keep threatening to put me in cuffs for? Yeah, don't think I didn't notice that you finally got a set that is the right size for a fox. So it's alright for you to use Mafia resources as long as I'm the one doing the dirty work? What were you going to do when you wrung me dry, throw me in jail like you did to Weaselton?"

Her silence was answer enough. Not the wide disbelieving look in her eyes, not the way she reached out for him. Nick let her blouse drop down on her bed.

"See, you keep calling me the liar, but newflash, darling, you're not any better. So if you'll excuse me, I'm heading back to the Mafia where they don't lie about what they want out of me."

He snatched his clothes off the hangars they were hung on, and let himself out without looking back.

Early morning meant that there were no mammals around to gawk at the fox walking around in only his underwear. Nick made it to the shared bathroom without any interruption from bunnies or any other residents. Good. He didn't want to be disturbed while he crawled back into his clothes.

A glance in the mirror over the sink confirmed he had a lot to do. He badly needed to brush his fur out. He didn't have a brush so he did his best with his claws. They snagged on knots and sometimes scratched his skin beneath, but it was better than nothing. Really, the night had gone fine. He had used the bunny as much as she'd used him. The enjoyable diversion hadn't cost him any progress in his assignment from Mr. Big, and he had all the time in the world to follow the trail of the Nighthowlers.

His pants were the first to go on. A quick pat of his pockets confirmed that the bunny hadn't used the distraction to rob him blind. The carrot pen was still in his pocket for all that she'd been eyeing it at Mystic Springs Oasis. So much for her plan of arresting him.

His shirt was next. As he buttoned it over bandages, he wondered if the gang doctor would have anything to say about his dressing. There was no harm in keeping the bandage on until he got to the doctor, that would probably save him a dressing down for taking so long to come by.

He shrugged on his jacket. It was so nice to have tailored outfits that fit. The way the jacket sat on his shoulders just the way he liked it made it clear that it was his. Too bad about the melted snow on his pants. He might have to get a new set tailored, if he couldn't get this set cleaned.

The last was tugging his tie on his suit, adjusting the knot and the buttons until everything sat nicely. He grinned at himself in the mirror.

His reflection showed that his suit didn't match.

His reflection showed that his suit didn't match.

His reflection showed that his suit didn't match.

He clutched the mirror, but it still showed him his jacket was wrong. He knew this jacket, lost it to a bunny that had needed its warmth more than he did. A bunny who kept it since his birthday, who'd made it smell the way she did under her chin, who'd hung it up nicely among her clothes like she -

No, no she couldn't possibly care. She _didn't_.

... his phone had been going off for the last few minutes. "Put a chain around my neck, and lead me anywhere," it warbled in the tones of Elvis Bearsley at him.

Nick fished his phone out of his pocket to stare at the screen, even though he didn't need to. Koslov was summoning him.

 

Judy crept through the foyer of the ZPD station. If she kept her head down, maybe her small size would mean no one would notice her -

"Hopps. Hopps!" Judy froze as Clawhauser's cheery voice washed over her. "Pst, up here!"

She plastered a smile she wasn't feeling on her face. "Clawhauser!"

It wasn't good enough. The cheetah immediately clapped his paws over his mouth. "Hopps, you look terrible! Is this about the Chief? It's about the Chief, isn't it?"

"It's about the Chief!" she echoed, and cringed at how easily the lie came out of her mouth. The last 24 hours had shown how dishonest she'd been about what she wanted from Nick, and it seemed she hadn't kicked the habit.

Clawhauser glanced around them, eyes darting from side to side as he made sure he covered the whole foyer. "Come on back here. I'll let you in on a secret." He stage whispered, "But you gotta promise not to tell anyone else!"

"I really shouldn't. I have all these jam cam footage to sort through..." She grit her teeth at the reminder of her failure. She'd tried to go through the jam cam footage on her own. She'd even identified the van that had taken Manchas. But her trail had gone cold once the jam cam footage stopped being helpful. She wasn't capable of processing the evidence without help, help that she'd treated horribly. She really was a dumb bunny.

Her frustrated expression made Clawhauser rummage through his boxes. "You can sort through the footage with a donut in hand!" He produced a sprinkled covered one with a flourish. "Come on. It's a rainbow coloured one. You can't say no to a rainbow! And seriously, I think you'd want something to bite on when you hear my secret. So why not have something sweet?"

Judy had been rejected too many times in the last 24 hours to do the same to the cheerful cheetah. She sighed and detoured around the back of the reception desk.

Clawhauser's desk was more of a mess than the cereal boxes peeking over the top of the reception counter would have any visitors believe. Smaller bags of snacks and candies covered most of the surface and even the keyboard of his laptop. Judy only just managed to leap into the tiny bit of uncovered desk next to the desk phone.

She'd barely settled down when Clawhauser was already waving the doughnut in her face. She took it and swept sprinkles off her lap.

Whatever secret Clawhauser had was already making his tail wag and twist with glee. "Are you ready for this?"

Her smile was still in place, so all she had to do was force out a "Sure."

"Really really ready?"

"Uh huh."

"Really really really ready?"

Judy could feel the plastic of her smile begin to crack. "Clawhauser - "

"Of course you want to know! I mean, what, it's not everyday that the Chief watches security footage as if it were a highlight reel! Boy, he couldn't put this one down."

"Security footage?" Judy could only repeat. She ought to have been feeling worry, or nervousness, but it seemed she had gone numb all over.

"Yeah! Last night when you called in the savage jaguar, a limo service reported a disturbance. What we got off their security cameras was even better than a movie!"

She hadn't noticed any security cameras, hadn't been thinking since she saw Nick -

_That tends to happen when I'm around._

The thought of his voice triggered bittersweet memories that threatened to blot out her view of Clawhauser's laptop. Memories of Nick's enthusiasm that proved that night at the bar wasn't a fluke. Of how she'd responded to him without thinking through what her actions meant. And now she was paying for it.

Regret was going to make Judy miss the video Clawhauser was playing. She made herself focus on Manchas and his scrunched up form. Despite having seen it in person, it was still startling to watch Manchas' confused expression morph into a snarl. At least the distance of the camera spared the viewer some details that Judy's imagination was way too happy to fill in.

_Of course the camera couldn't get my best angle. Besides, Carrots, you had your choice of angles that night._

Why was she even tormenting herself this way? Nick hadn't even looked back when he left her apartment this morning. Hadn't she ruined their lives enough? 

Oblivious to Judy's whirling thoughts, Clawhauser was already rattling on. "You were right. You were right! One savage jaguar, just like what you said. It won't be long before you hit the jackpot. Recognition, fame, a promotion!"

She couldn't keep lying, even if this was an older lie. "Clawhauser, I wasn't right. The Chief was right." _Nick_ was right too. "I - I can't even find a van in the Arlberg Road Tunnel, and to find Otterton by tomorrow morning - I can't, Clawhauser. I should quit and accept what everyone already knows. I'm not a real cop."

There was no reason why that fact should have leeched the cheer from Clawhauser to have him slump on himself. Or make him reach out to put a gentle paw on her shoulder. "Arlberg Road Tunnel? That really long tunnel that goes between Rainforest District and Tundratown? Hopps, Arlberg Road Tunnel causes problems for everyone, real cops included. If only you knew the number of times the others swear on my radio when a chase went that a way! I think there's even a petition to get Maintenance Tunnel 6B shut down, I mean why would you need a maintenance tunnel no one can see - "

Despite her mood, Judy couldn't help asking, "Maintenance Tunnel 6B? What's wrong with that?"

"What's wrong? What isn't wrong! The side tunnel isn't visible from the main one, and since no one's got a camera up in there, we only can spot anyone who uses it when they come out at Meadowlands. By the time we do that whoever's on the other end says we've got the wrong guy! I mean, I'm just listening in, and that's already got my tail in a twist!"

"Do we have cameras at the exit of Maintenance Tunnel 6B?"

"Well, finally, yes, after asking for years - "

"Can I just borrow - " She spun Clawhauser's laptop to face herself, sending packets of chips and bags of sweets sliding off. "Thank you." After using Bob's computer, navigating to the jam cam records on Clawhauser's laptop was not an issue at all. She clicked on the live feed. "Is this the camera at the end of the tunnel?"

"Uh huh, on the Meadowland's side."

Judy skipped back to yesterday's records. As soon as she pressed play, she saw what she was looking for. "The van."

All the glee had re-inflated Clawhauser's enthusiasm. "Yeah, the getaway vehicle!"

"The van that's going out of town."

"Out of town! That means - wait, vans go out of town all the time, what does that mean?"

"That means you solved the case! Clawhauser, that van had a savage jaguar in it. Wherever it's gone, that's where we'll find Manchas."

Clawhauser gasped behind the cover of his paws. "Really really?"

"Uh huh."

"Really really really?"

"Yup! Let's go! We don't have any more time to waste!"

Judy leapt off the table with a new spring in her step. She was excited about her lead. She wasn't hoping that someone else might have checked the jam cams too.

_You keep telling yourself that, sweetheart._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the sweetness never lasts you know


	7. Beggin' you

One didn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Or any horse really, that was just rude. So when Koslov told Nick to get ready for a meeting with Mr. Big that night, Nick didn't ask why.

Instead he went to his apartment. It wasn't a tiny room with greasy walls and a rickety bed. All his clothes had their own cupboard instead of just a rack. And he had all his grooming tools and his very own private bathroom at his disposal.

Once he was back, he proceed to run a very deep, very hot bath.

While the water was running he started the whole process of grooming. His clothes were tossed in a corner, to be dealt with later. The bandages were next to go. No time to dwell on those. More important was brushing out his fur, dealing with the matts that his claws hadn't been able to work through. There was just something about a brush that got all the knots. The sound of water and the steady strokes of the brush blotted out whatever thoughts were winding around his mind. By the time the bath was ready, he had nothing more on his mind than hot water and the bath salts he would add. The scent of lavender that spread as soon as the bath salts hit the water emptied his thoughts even more.

He slid in. The water was a little hotter than he usually took his baths, but today he intended to soak. His muscles appreciated the heat, unkinking as he sank in up to his shoulders. He'd chosen a tub deep enough that he could just rest his head on the side while the rest of him was submerged. After a while his wounds stopped protesting. He just drifted.

He lingered in this state until his phone alarm went off. He looked at the screen out of habit. The words MR. BIG flashed across the display.

That's right, the only thing he should be thinking about now was what to tell Mr. Big. And how to tell it, that was equally important. As soon as he worked through the what.

What did Mr. Big want to know? About Nighthowlers. What ideas about them could Nick plant? Probaby shouldn't look like he was working too hard after Mr. Big's advice. But he could mention the trace of liquid Nighthowler splashed across the car seat, and how it wouldn't look too good on mob stuff. A suggestion that Mr. Big could take for his own.

What else? Manchas. Should Nick let the cat out of the bag, or did it not matter after how long Nick had dallied? But Mr. Big had set the time to meet, and no earlier. That would go the longest way to explaining why Nick hadn't banged down Mr. Big's door with the news. And Nick would have to let the information snowball until it was a big ole scoop.

So mostly Manchas and a dash of Nighthowlers. What hadn't he covered? _Weaselton._ Which meant _Honey_ , because she would know best whether Weaselton had put in his no contest plea.

The rest didn't matter to Mr. Big. So it shouldn't matter to Nick too. Not at all.

He already had his hands full with what he had to do anyway. The most tricky of all would be talking to Honey. She was paranoid and sharp and could spot lies from a mile away but she didn't ice mammals for getting things wrong.

So Nick called her first.

Honey didn't answer immediately. Never did. Nick had seen her setup to answer the phone exactly once, and according to Honey the only reason he wasn't dead was because she claimed that she was due to change her setup. He guessed her new arrangement was just as finicky.

When the phone finally connected, Honey growled, "Clean?"

"I'm in the bathtub, it doesn't get any cleaner than this." Good, good, he still had it in him. Maybe tone down on the snark a little for Mr. Big.

"Ha! You think that's going to stop them? Do you know what kind of things you can put in the water tank of a toilet?"

"They'll have to squeeze it in with my stash of money."

"You don't have any money, Wilde. You used it all to buy suits that you can't even pawn in an emergency."

"How can I be the beauty to your brains if I don't have my suits?"

"Are you stalling me so they can find me?" Honey demanded.

Right. Nick had forgotten who he was talking to again. "Well I thought it'd be better not to ask if our noble had changed his residence just yet."

"The flower flincher? It'll be hard to work the fields from where he is right now, unless he unearths a pot of gold."

"Or someone pays more than he's worth for us to grace us with his presence." He wasn't sure if paying for Weaselton's bail was a lever he wanted to pull just yet.

"Don't tell me what I don't need to know. You should know phones aren't for being social. You want them to trace you? You want them to put you in the ground?"

The right answer would be to make some glib remark about that being where plants belonged. But since Mr. Big expected Nick to be all business there was no point in wasting more effort than he needed in making a joke he wasn't in the mood for.

All business he could manage. "Let's not deprive the world of my good looks just yet. Let's keep you off the radar, huh?"

"I can spare a few more minutes to make sure I haven't blathered to a fake. What's with the speed dial today, foxy? You still got the fuzz acting as ball and chain?"

He hadn't come to Honey for the easy mode. He'd come to Honey for phone gripping breath stealing questions like these. At least at this trial run he could spare a deep breath.

When he let it out this line came along with it, "Come on, Honeybunch. Getting out of the ball and chain is old hat for us Houdinis. Am I right or am I right?"

"One day you're going to slip on your own silver tongue and land in a ditch. And I'll be there with a camera, Wilde, mark my words."

If Honey was saying things like that, it was time for Nick to quit while he was ahead. "Make sure you get my best side. And that's what I need to put together for Mr. Big in an hour, so if you'll excuse your gentlemammal caller...?"

That earned him a chuckle from the other side of the line. "Slide on right out of here, Wilde, go sell some ice to the polar bears."

 

It was Raymond on garage guard duty again, though he'd traded out his usual track suit for an actual suit, complete with collared shirt. Too bad for Raymond that all black worked better on Koslov.

Still it was a trade up in looks, and Nick knew Raymond would be chuffed he'd noticed. "Raymond! Finally picked up a few tips huh? Gotta say you can clean up."

"Wilde. We were told to dress for the occasion."

"A welcoming party for little ole me? You shouldn't have."

Nick thought that was the end of their usual quick exchange before Nick headed wherever he was supposed to go. But Raymond shifted himself just enough that he was blocking the door to the rest of the house.

Maybe the heating was out in the garage. There could be no other reason why Nick should be feeling the cold of Tundratown looking up at the unsmiling bulk of Raymond. Nick never thought he'd miss the smile with too many teeth.

"Or not a welcoming party. C'mon, Raymond, what's up with this? Don't we go way back?"

"Go way back?" Raymond echoed. "Because we go way back, that's why I'm asking. That bunny I saw you with, she's your girl?"

When had - Nick corrected himself before the question could get too far. Now that he bothered to remember, Raymond had stumbled upon Nick hiding at his own birthday party. No, not hiding, he'd been

_Pressing Hopps up against the wall_

"I once had a girl like that," Raymond was musing. "She could get an uppity wolf in a headlock even faster than I could. I still have pictures. Maybe."

_Kissing Judy with an ease they'd thought they'd perfected_

"She's the only one I ever thought I could leave the Mafia for."

_Wanting to touch her all over, letting go of her badge -_

Oh. The badge.

That finally broke through the fog of memory that had settled over Nick, just in time for him to catch Raymond's question. "That bunny... she's the one you'd leave the Mafia for, isn't she?

"Leave the Mafia for a girl in a Playbunny outfit? That sounds like it ought to top a list of the worst life decisions ever, buddy."

It hadn't been the answer Raymond was expecting. From an unmoveable mountain of bear, he'd started to shift from foot to foot with unease. It was simple enough for Nick to time the shifts and sidle by just at the right moment.

"Thanks for asking," he called over his shoulder. "But I do have an appointment to get to."

The moment he started on the long silent trip to Mr. Big's office it occurred to Nick that he might have made the wrong choice. He could have pretended what Raymond had said was true, turned around and bought himself some time. Time that would be another two weeks at most, because running hinted at a guilty conscience, and Mr. Big hated cowards. But the corridor stretching ahead of Nick right now felt like a tightrope he'd begun to walk, and had no idea where the end was.

He did know that the wire led right into Mr. Big office, over a trapdoor and to the ring that Mr. Big was holding up in anticipation.

Nick stepped forward deliberately, like an tightrope walker testing tension as he approached Mr. Big. His stunt was to lean forward and kiss the ring without falling, then backpedalling to a respectful distance. The trapdoor yawned below Nick.

The first quiver in the wire came when Mr. Big said, "We've met almost every day since Otterton went missing."

"It touches me to see how much you care for your mammals, sir. And if I may be so bold to speak on behalf of everyone else, we're all touched by your concern. Which is why it just pains me to have to tell you about Manchas."

"I already know about Manchas."

"You mean the part about how he ran away into the night, or - "

"That's the only part I need to know." The wire's sway under Nick's feet was more insistent this time. "Do you know why I know about it? Because someone reported it. I had to choose between the police sniffing around my business and giving up the video of what happened. I don't like these sort of choices, Wilde. Try to avoid them as much as I can. So why am I making this choice here?"

The audience of flanking polar bears were waiting for another acrobatic feat. Nick took a deep breath and began. "Well, was it strange that this unfortunate situation happened? No, mammals report things to the police all the time. Just like Mrs. Otterton had already contacted the police by the time I met her. And since I had to keep Otterton's side gig under wraps, I figured it would be too suspicious to ask the missus to pull the report. In fact, thanks to the cops Weaselton is behind bars and ready for us to pick him up! That's why you needn't worry about the latest report, sir -"

Nick's phone buzzed.

"Go ahead. Check it," prompted Mr. Big.

Nick did as he was told. He found a picture of Manchas, like the one he'd been sent when he first heard Otterton had gone missing. He found a picture of himself, like the picture of himself and Otterton from the jam cams. But the worst was the last picture, a nightmarish amalgam of the ones before with Manchas snarling at Nick and a bunny in a cop uniform.

"I know my eyes aren't as good as yours, Nicky. But like you, I got a knack of knowing mammals. I knew the bunny in the picture, the bunny who called the case in was familiar. So I paid good money for reliable people to tell me that the bunny had been in my house. She entered my house when she has a badge, an id number, the works."

Nick drew in a deep breath. When he let it out, this came along with it. "Mr. Big, sir, this is a simple misunderstanding -"

But Mr. Big wasn't ready to listen. "You just gotta answer me. Did you recognise the bunny in the cop uniform as the one who was at your birthday party?"

Nick hadn't been walking on a tightrope all this time. He'd been freefalling but just too stupid to realise it. All his words were good for now were as stones down a well, letting him know how far he was from the bottom.

He cast the first one. "Yes."

But some words were lighter than others, and Nick added those now. "But that was only after I started looking into Otterton's disappearance!"

The whole idea still went over like so many stones. Mr Big's furrowed eyebrows showed that he was not amused.

"Point is, I didn't know she would be at the party or the limo service, and I certainly didn't know she would report Manchas!"

"What about the bunny cop at Little Rodentia? You telling me there's more than one rabbit with questionable fashion choices?"

"Do I know how rabbits think? No I don't -"

But Mr. Big wasn't listening anymore. "I trusted you, Nicky. I let you talk to who you needed to find Otterton. I even let you carry my daughter around. And how do you repay my generosity? By talking to a cop. A cop that's been undercover in my house without my permission. An undercover cop. And here you are, expecting me to still trust you when you go snooping around with cops?"

"Mr. Big, I am so sorry that it seems that way. How can I prove my sincerity and make it up to you?"

"I do have a request, Nicky."

Despite the sombre atmosphere, Nick's hopes lifted by just a bit. "What can I do, sir?"

"Say hello to Grammama. Ice him!"

Desperate, Nick clung to the table. "I didn't say nothing to the cop! I'm not saying nothing!"

"And you never will."

It was over. Nick was lifted off his feet and could only dangle as the rug was shoved aside. The cold wasn't just his imagination anymore - the entrance to the wrong side of an ice floe was pulled open, an icy maw where Nick would find his death -

"Wait! WAIT!" Fru Fru was making good time on her entrance, thanks to Koslov that was carrying her in a paw. "Daddy, you don't have to do this!"

"Daddy has to, baby, Daddy has to."

"But the bunny cop that Nick talked to did help! The ZPD found the missing mammals, it's all over the news!"

"It is just as she said," Koslov rumbled. "They are reporting that the Mayor held mammals captive, along with pictures of those mammals rescued by the ZPD. Otterton and Manchas are among those rescued."

"Nicky doesn't have to look for Otterton anymore," Fru Fru chipped in. "He's been found!"

Koslov acknowledged the addition with a curt nod. "Wilde may have taken a gamble with the ZPD, but the bet has paid off. Thanks to Wilde, we avoided a nasty situation where our mammals were anywhere near the Mayor."

Nick had never been so relieved to hear Mr. Big utter, "Put him down." Heat crept back into the room as the trapdoor was covered. Only Mr. Big's scrutiny kept Nick on his feet. "I don't like your methods," Mr. Big said. "But it's saved two of my associates."

"And me!" Fru Fru insisted. "The bunny cop and Nick rescued me from that giant donut!"

"I will remember this kindness," Mr. Big agreed.

"I'm grateful enough!" Nick blurted out. He wasn't sure where solid ground was yet, status quo was great while he sorted things out.

But Mr. Big was having none of it. "If you find yourself in need, you know you can come to me."

The expectant way Mr. Big held open his arms prompted Nick to lean in for air kisses on auto-pilot. But Nick wasn't paying full attention, not even when Koslov propelled him out of the room. There was a thought niggling at him, a glimmer of something that seemed to be eluding his conscious mind.

He walked through familiar corridors, past Raymond and his unusual solemnity, all the way out to the crisp air of Tundratown. The crunch of snow beneath his paws and the misting of his breath finally let the thought on his mind take a form that he could understand.

Judy had saved his life again. Even though she wasn't physically here, even though she had no idea what she'd done, she'd saved Nick again.

The thought trailed Nick like the mist from his breath as he started the long journey home.

 

It was already morning, and Judy should probably go home after being up all night. But with the reporters gathering for the ZPD press conference, it felt like the day she received her badge. Both then and now, the euphoria of achievement was bubbling through her veins. That couldn't be matched by watching the same clip on TV - she knew because her parents had insisted on recording her graduation and showing it to all her family members that couldn't be there at the event itself.

So she lingered. Chief Bogo would be speaking in less than an hour. Although a good crowd of mammals had gathered, more were trickling in. None of them were foxes.

_Let me get this straight, you have 100% of the recognition, 50% of the fame, maybe a promotion from meter maid to actual cop waiting in the wings... And you still want me? Someone's greedy._

Her inner voice was right about only one thing - it wasn't good to still think of Nick. She shook her head to try and silence the voice that sounded like him, but froze when she caught sight of Assistant Mayor Bellwether. Who was coming straight to Judy.

_I take that back. 100% of the fame, and your name has reached the Assistant Mayor. Impressive enough for a bunny._

Bellwether clasped Judy's paws between her hooves. "Well, I knew the case was in good hands. It's yet another proud day for us little guys!"

"Thank you, ma'am." Judy had almost forgotten how good it felt to be acknowledged. "Are you here for the press conference?"

"Ah, yes, it's good to let the people know that they've still got a friend at City Hall! If only I'd realised what was up with Lionheart sooner... he'd been refusing to review his files, going out at all times of the day..." Bellwether drew out a handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes.

Judy placed a gentle paw on Bellwether's shoulder. "Lionheart took us all by surprise. I'm sure you'll can fix the people's trust in City Hall."

"Oh I don't know. I've never had the chance to do anything this important." Bellwether was wringing her handkerchief in her nervousness.

"But you're the Assistant Mayor of Zootopia!"

"I'm more of a glorified secretary. I think Mayor Lionheart just wanted the sheep vote... the last time I went up on stage was probably when Lionheart wanted to give me this gift at the office party!" She tapped at her phone before showing Judy the screen. In the displayed photo, Lionheart had crouched down so he could point at a mug Bellwether was holding in a hoof. The mug would have said "World's Best Dad" if someone hadn't taken to the last word with a marker and struck it out to scribble "Assistant Mayor" instead.

_That's almost as bad as your meter maid vest._

Bellwether sighed as she tucked her phone away. "Feels good to be appreciated. Which is probably the last thing this crowd wants to do."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Judy went over in her mind of the stress-relieving techniques her family had used at one time or another when her siblings had a school play or some other performance.

"Actually, yes! Yes you can. Why don't you speak before me at the press conference?"

"Speak... at the press conference?"

"I think it would help me to keep things short and sweet! Besides, our city needs something else other than the savage mammals to focus on. If you speak, it'll be a heart-warming story of how ZPD's newest recruit cracked the biggest case yet! We could use a heart-warming story."

_With your track record, Carrots? Probably best to leave it to the professionals._

For once, her inner voice and Judy were in agreement. "I shouldn't. I mean, we usually don't talk about ongoing investigations but the Chief said he could handle this - "

"Ongoing investigation?" Bellwether clutched her handkerchief to her mouth. "You mean there are more savage mammals still out there!"

"No! No, it's not savage mammals."

"Then what could it be?"

Judy hesitated over the details, but the sheer terror on Bellwether's face decided her. "We discovered that two of the mammals are involved in the trade of contraband Night Howlers. We're trying to see if the other missing mammals have similar links to these toxic plants too."

"So the link of the toxic plants is more important than the fact that they're all predators?"

"What?" Judy glanced at the pictures of the mammals that had gone missing. "I guess they all are. Night Howlers ate supposed to only affect the receptors of certain populations..."

"Oh. Oh my goodness, I completely forgot that I put my phone in silent mode, and there it is, buzzing away in my pocket! I'm sorry, Judy, I need to take this call. Could be something about my speech, and I have to get that right don't I?"

"Oh of course! That's very important." Judy's ears were usually keen enough to pick up phones even on silent mode, but she might have been too distracted by her inner thoughts to notice.

_Not that she was looking for a convenient excuse to get out of the conversation, hm?_

Unaware of the self-doubt Judy was struggling with Bellwether absently waved, already glued to her phone as she disappeared around a pillar. Judy went back to scanning the crowd to take her mind off her errant thoughts. There was no sign of the Chief yet, and the few ZPD officers that had been assigned were directing the reporters where they needed to go. As Judy watched, two of the officers peeled away from directing reporters to approach her.

"Officer Hopps?" The larger ram was the first to speak. "We need to talk to you in private."

"Alright. I think the bullpen is the closest - "

"It'll be better to talk outside."

"Outside? That doesn't sound private - hey!" The other ram had opted to grab Judy instead of speaking. "Let go!"

"Judy!" Bellwether had rounded the pillar while pocketing her phone. "Judy, I just heard that you went into one of the holding cells for the savage mammals at Lionheart's facility. Please tell me you didn't do that!"

Judy left off glaring at the sheep to try and recall what happened when she went to the abandoned asylum. Lionheart had been about to enter the corridor she was in, so Judy -

So Judy had hidden in one of the holding cells.

"Does that matter?" she asked, ignoring the curl of doubt in her mind. She had ignored her inner voice, she could ignore this.

"You could be infected by whatever made the other mammals go savage!"

"It's not like a bunny could go savage..."

"We are talking about the lives of mammals here, Judy. Are you that sure? You could hurt someone!"

Bellwether was right. The last time Judy was so sure she was doing right, she had ended up hurting Nick terribly. She couldn't take the chance again, not when so many mammals were involved.

This time she didn't protest when the ram tugged on the arm he was holding. She let the three of them lead her past the crowd, past a surprised Bogo, and out of the ZPD.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm off on holiday people! Comments will be slow, and maybe the next chapter too =P I'll try my best.


	8. Why won't you release me

Friday afternoon found Nick at an al-fresco restaurant on the river, his shades on to keep the worst of the Rainforest district sun out. He wished he could do the same with the humidity that was sinking into his fur and dominating his thoughts. Even ditching his suit jacket and loosening his tie hadn't helped. Only his iced coffee was keeping him from panting. He needed to avoid that; even without showing teeth, he was already getting nervous stares on the street.

He rather envied Mrs. Otterton, who had come by river. A dip in the water seemed about right for this kind of weather. She waved at Nick as she swam past on her way to the waterway entrance.

Nick left his greetings for later, when Mrs. Otterton had been through the blow dryer and wasn't dripping. He bore with the dampness of her air kisses before pulling out the chair for her.

"Thank you, Nicky." Mrs. Otterton didn't settle in the seat; rather she dropped into it. "It seems that I've caused you nothing but trouble this week."

"This week's had it out for you. What happened to your husband was unfortunate."

"You look like you've had a terrible week yourself trying to help my Emmitt. If only I could ask someone else, maybe the cop you brought to my shop? It bothers me to have to trouble you when you're not doing well -"

"I already have what you want." Nick pulled the extra phone from his breast pocket and laid it on the table.

"Already? Oh Nicky, that's incredible! I must do something for you. Let me treat you to lunch."

"As nice as it would be to stay for lunch, I do have more appointments to get to. All the information you asked for is on this phone - "

"You're leaving already?"

"I'm a busy fox. Lots of things to do, lots of mammals to see - "

"And you'd need to be well-fed to keep up your packed schedule." Mrs. Otterton backed her statement with a stern look that reminded Nick so much of his mother's expression. He wondered if motherhood included a class named Looks to Give Your Wayward Children 101. Mrs. Otterton's follow-up weapon of choice was to talk about the restaurant. "The nice thing about this place is that they'll cook whatever you catch. I hope you don't mind if I use my paws."

"If that's what you feel like, go for it."

Nick didn't see anything in the water from his side of the table, but Mrs. Otterton nabbed a fish as soon as she dipped a paw in the water. A waiter was quick to pluck the wriggling fish from her paw, but less quick about taking it away. Instead, he asked with the fish in one paw, "How would you like it prepared?"

"I'll have my half grilled, and how would you like yours, Nicky?"

Nick, who had been slouching to keep out of the splash zone, started. "Don't worry about me, Mrs. Otterton. I'm not hungry."

"But you've gotten so thin. Consider this as a bonus for your help. Please."

"Let's take this as payback for letting me flip through your records, huh? I've got a car waiting -"

Mrs. Otterton had caught Nick's shirt sleeve before he could rise from his chair. To the server she said, "Just grill the entire fish please." She was strong enough to keep Nick's sleeve twisted in her paw until the server left, when she said in a quieter voice, "Nicky, the hospital says I can't see my husband because he's still savage. I don't know what that means, and I don't know if I'll like what I'm about to see. Won't you please sit with me as I go through what you've brought me? Maybe I will be a little stronger with your help."

It was because Nick himself wasn't strong enough that he knew how Mrs. Otterton felt. That made him sit back down, despite his doubts about his actual usefulness.

She pushed the phone into his paws. "Why don't you show me how to use this?"

The phone was one of Honey's burner phones, which was why it was an old clunky thing covered mostly in buttons. Nick pressed these until he brought up the video that Honey had saved for Mrs. Otterton on the tiny screen.

He turned the screen towards Mrs. Otterton. "How about we share?" she suggested, and propped the phone up against the window sill overlooking the river.

The video was obviously a security feed, set high in the wall to overlook a single room. Within that was a bed, left empty with the sheets thrown back.

"Where's my husband?" Mrs Otterton wondered.

"If I may?" Nick tapped buttons to fast forward the video, until he spotted movement by the bed. He let the video run normally again.

Mr. Otterton crawled out from under the bed, his nose sniffing at the air. His glasses were missing, as was his shirt. Undeterred, the otter crept forward towards the glass on the far side of his room until his movements were jerked to a stop.

Mrs. Otterton had brought her paws to her mouth. "They put him on a _leash_!"

Sure enough, Mr. Otterton reached back to claw at the leash, then the collar that was fastened around his neck. When neither gave, he started to pace at the full extension of the leash, now and then jerking his head so the leash jangled at where it was secured to the bed. Each time he glanced at the camera, his eyes flashed yellow.

"That's not my Emmitt," Mrs. Otterton declared. "My Emmitt would... talk to someone, find out what was going on. Not - "

Mr. Otterton lunged at something on the other side of the glass. Even though it was in the video, both Mrs. Otterton and Nick flinched back.

The neighbouring room was partly visible to the camera. As they watched, the mammal in that room came into view. Her black tipped ears came up as she called out to Mr. Otterton through the glass, saying something that the camera couldn't pick up.

Mr. Otterton's reaction was to lunge again. Judy Hopps sighed, her ears drooping, and retreated out of sight again.

Nick grabbed the phone and shook it. But it was only a recording. The camera continued to show Otterton going in circles.

When Nick lowered the phone, Mrs. Otterton met his gaze with one of determination. "Nicky, I need to see my husband in person."

"You're a braver mammal than I am," murmured Nick as he glanced back at the video again. When he looked back at Mrs. Otterton, he had a glimmer of a plan. "I can do that for you, but I'll need you to help me too."

 

Judy's focus was on her phone and not the glass behind her. Her daily discussions with the chief were very important, especially since they were over phone instead of in person.

"How are you doing, Hopps?"

There was something about talking to Chief Bogo on the phone that seemed to change their daily discussions. His voice was gentler, softer on the line, unlike their curt, charged conversations that they used to have at the station. Chief Bogo would never have asked about her well-being in those chats.

"Never been better!" She chirped back. "The past cases you gave me have been keeping me busy!"

They had been. Judy had devoured enough of the past cases involving Night Howlers to make it back three years. As long as the Chief was willing to listen to her without bringing up meter maid duties, there was no bone of contention.

_Or he simply can't make you do meter maid work when you're stuck in a hospital bed._

Judy disagreed with her inner voice. All her reading had helped her pinpoint the way the savage mammals behaved had one key difference from previous Night Howler cases - how long the effects lasted.

She had been sharing her case summaries and insights from the files to the current case with Chief Bogo, so she shared this too. "Sir, in most variants of Night Howlers sold they've spent a great deal of time reducing how long the effects last."

"It isn't a good business model if a one time purchase sets up a mammal for life." Chief Bogo's clipped reply was the best sign that he was far from going soft, though for once his ire wasn't directed at Judy.

That emboldened her to ask, "Do you think that Bellwether is right and that it really isn't Night Howlers then?"

"Tell that to Fangmeyer and the others." Bogo's huff at the end of that statement softened the bite of his comment. "They've been taking temperatures and readings so often they're about to snap, without any biological or chemical assistance. But it's still better than having half of the force on enforced quarantine."

They both leave the _like you_ part of that conversation out. The first time Judy had talked Bogo after being admitted was the next most heated conversation after arresting Weaselton. Bogo had been furious that she hadn't checked in with him or been alert enough to recognise the slightly modified uniform of City Hall guards. But Judy had signed all the hospital admission paper work, and so Bogo's efforts had been in keeping the rest of the ZPD from Judy's fate.

Judy didn't mind too much, except for where she wished she could investigate one of the scenes where a savage mammal had been found...

_Being quarantined makes that a little difficult, sweetheart. Besides, with your current neighbours I'd thought you had enough of savage mammals to last you a lifetime._

She wondered if the actual Nick Wilde would say that. She knew what the actual Chief Bogo would say about savage mammals, because he was saying it now.

"Don't worry about the rest of the force, Hopps. We're keeping an eye out for savage mammals and for each other. What I need you to think about is how you can help the savage mammals."

For the first time in their conversation, Judy dared a look at the other mammals in the ward but only saw fear. Treachery. Bloodlust.

She turned back to the blank wall, hoping that would help blank out the sight of tooth and claw. "I'm not sure if I'm the right person to help, sir. Do you - do you know there are more mammals in my ward today - "

"We know about the new savage mammals. We just stopped another mauling today - "

"No," Judy managed to squeeze out, even though the word _mauling_ brought sharp teeth and slashing claws back to her mind. "No, these were normal mammals made to go under quarantine to keep their jobs, their families. I came here to make the world a better place, but I think I broke it. All because I couldn't figure out the truth in time."

"Don’t give yourself so much credit, Hopps." The words were what the Chief might have said when he was pointing out all the flaws in whatever explanation Judy had presented, but the quiet way he said them took all the sting out of it. "The world has always been broken. That’s why we need good cops - like you."

It would be easy for Judy to take that validation as her due. But the same part of her that drove her to have daily discussions with the Chief, to make a daily quota of 200 tickets before noon, to still drag herself to an oversized computer after all _that_ , that part of her made her say, "With all due respect, a cop is supposed to serve and protect - to help everyone. I haven't helped any of the mammals I've met, in or out of this ward."

"As hard as it is to believe, you are helping with the work you're doing now. Read those files, and think about the proof we need in order to make a case for Night Howlers. I'm counting on another update tomorrow, Hopps."

The click of the line signaled the end of Judy's contact with the outside world.

Her immediate surrounds came rushing back. The bland white of the wall was no distraction from the beep of machines, the clack of claw against tile, the growls of warning. They were a bunch of mammals trapped in a confined space - she could feel the insanity creeping under her fur if she would only let it -

She stared at her phone, her only line out of this mess. She could always call out but none of the numbers on her phone seemed right. Her parents would just worry. Calls to the rest of her family or friends from Bunnyburrow would lead right back to her parents again. And who did she know in Zootopia? Chief Bogo? The Assistant May - no, the _Mayor_?

_It's too bad you never got my number, Carrots._

When Judy was a kid she fell down a lot, always too eager to get to where she wanted to go to watch how she was getting there. That left her with spectacular scabs that she would poke and prod and sometimes peel off, fascinated how different things looked beneath. It wasn't until she was 10 that she broke the habit under the keen eyes and quick paws of her Mom. Mom managed to keep curious fingers away from the scratches on Judy's cheek.

The way Judy kept mulling over these treacherous thoughts made her recall picking at those scabs. It was fascinating what she wanted and could have were two very different things.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the distinctive beeps of the key pad followed by the main door swinging open. Who was it now? An orderly? Another savage mammal? Assist - no, _Mayor_ Bellwether?

The scent of the flowers filled Judy's nose, like someone had bottled the scent from Mrs Otterton's shop, like the floral version of harvest season back in Bunnyburrow. Despite herself she turned, away from the blank wall, away from the savage mammals, to stare at two of the largest floral baskets she had ever seen.

The orderly carrying the arrangements looked between Judy's room and Otterton's. Coming to a swift decision, he crouched in front of Judy's door to unlock the meal flap, doing his best to keep his antlers from thunking on the glass or unsettling his hazard suit. "Delivery for you," he rumbled, and shoved one of the baskets through the flap. Despite the flap being large enough for Judy to slip through if she wanted, the flowers took up most of the slot. The small box that followed after was a lot easier for the orderly to push through before locking everything up again.

Judy didn't bother to watch how the orderly approached Otterton. She was more interested in her deliveries, and who could have sent them. The box was a better place to start, because it was so much smaller. Judy had never heard of Furarra before, so she was surprised when she lifted the lid and found cannoli. Two rows of them.

She - she had to be sure. She dove into the flowers next, feeling a brief pang for the arrangement as she rustled through it to look for a card, a hint, _anything_...

She was feeling along the damp sponge when she found something jammed in. Something that made the crinkling sound of plastic wrap. She glanced at the glass to make sure that the orderly was gone, then at the security cameras. Playing it safe she leaned over, pretending to smell the flowers while she tugged the package free. Outsmarting Gideon Grey had taught Judy all about the importance of line of sight. She put that to use when she took the phone back to her bed.

Wrapped against the water was a phone with more buttons that she'd ever seen. After peeling the phone from its wrapper it took her some time to figure out which one was the power button, which took her to an unfamiliar home screen. Despite the different make of the phone, it was easy enough to figure out, especially when the contact list had only one number that she dialed.

She tucked it between her ear and her pillow as she listened to ringing. The phone had come with cannoli, but - but maybe it would be Mrs. Otterton who answered the phone. Or Miss Big, the daughter of the mafia don himself -

Then a voice came on the line, so close to the one in her head that she almost thought she was dreaming it again. "I just remembered that I never got your number, Carrots. So I gave you mine."

Nick's delivery reminded Judy of the rehearsed lines he'd first used on her in the bar. She should question it, but she was too relieved to fall back on the easy response that came to her. "I thought the pick-up line went the other way around."

"Well, you're certainly welcome to use that line on me. We all know how you like being direct."

"I already have your number. This - this is your number, isn't it?"

"For you darling? It most certainly can be. Though what is it with you and small cramped spaces? The cake, your apartment, your latest holiday destination..."

"I'm not on holiday."

"You're definitely not at work. What would you call what are you doing now, Fluff?"

"Making sure mammals are safe."

"Suddenly I'm grateful I don't pay taxes."

Nick probably meant that as a joke, but the disinterest in his tone put in Judy's mind how they started speaking past each other at the Otterton's. "I could be infectious with whatever turned the other mammals savage. I - I have to be sure. I've done tests, and I'm due for tests in another week - "

"Fluff, if you really were infected, do you think you'd still be capable of talking to me? You probably be eating the flowers instead of combing them for phones."

"The infection could take time. Manchas didn't go savage immediately."

"He still went savage within 48 hours of Otterton. Or did you forget about your deadline that Chief Blabber Blubber went on about? You should be clean by the time things are ready, unless you snacked on some Night Howlers on the side - "

"I'm clean of Night Howlers," said Judy, because that was the only test that she had chosen in the whole battery of tests they had done on her.

"Then you know you should be on a real, proper holiday, not whatever you're doing now. So how about we start with the Main Street exit on noon, Tuesday? You can let my buddy know where you want to go, remember the short guy who laughs like a hyena?"

"I can't leave. I _shouldn't_."

"So you think you'd go savage?"

"I - We don't know for sure -"

"Maybe a fox could too, huh?"

Nick's tone had gone clipped and sharp again, like it had back in her apartment. She couldn't let that happen again, had to try to make him _understand_. "Nick, you're not like them."

"Oh there's a _them_ now."

"You're not like me," she corrected. "You didn't go into a biohazard area when arresting Mayor Lionheart. Former Mayor Lionheart."

"Sometimes I wonder if you hear yourself. Did you forget that I was clawed by a savage jaguar? Don't you think that little detail means I ought to be shut up too right now?"

She had no idea that the wound she caused - by being too slow when they were being chased by Manchas, by not going after Nick when she'd said such horrible things - could hurt Nick even more.

"A hospital, a jail, you just need to keep me away from the public to keep them safe, don't you?"

"No!" She cringed when her shout set off a cacophony of snaps and snarls from the savage mammals. She went on more quietly, more quickly. "No, you could take some tests, I know what the ZPD use to make sure they aren't going savage. You just have to get all these from the pharmacy - "

"Am I a cop? No. No, I am not. But you? You're a cop. So why aren't you using these tests and going about your work like they are?"

"I - I signed the hospital admission forms."

"And the Chief bought that huh? Well, I guess he's one to go by the rules. How about you, Carrots? You're gonna let some rules hold you down?" By the time he'd used the nickname, Nick's voice had lightened. "You know you could ditch the hospital, don't you?"

She opened her mouth, but Nick beat her to deciding the reply.

"You know what? Why don't you tell me in person? I've got a getaway car and, well, you'll know the diversion when you see it. Be prepared to make like a bunny."

"But - "

"Nuh-uh, no 'buts' except the one with that cute, fuzzy wuzzy little tail."

"Nick!"

"The next time I see it, it ought to be in a car seat. Hang in there."

And then he too hung up. 

The right thing to do would be to ditch the phone. The right thing to do would be to report her conversation.

But Judy hadn't been doing the right thing when it came to Nick Wilde. She ended the call, and held the phone and the promise of freedom close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm probably going back to a two weeks update cycle. Stay tuned!


	9. Somethin' on the side

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd forget my head if it weren't attached to me. Update a few hours late! Whenever Finnick opens his mouth everyone also starts swearing along with him, so please forgive their potty mouths.
> 
> I do have a posting buffer, but I also wanted to write a smut treat for this verse. So please forgive if next chapter is also delayed.

When Nick picked up the scent of cigarette smoke on the polar bears passing him, he knew it was time to head outside.

Outside was what Mr. Big called a garden, even though the only green in the snowscape was the low lying bushes. Nick had no idea how the spindly trees survived with peeling bark and sans leaves. The Ottertons had attempted to explain this the last time they'd been hired to brush the snow off the trees, but Nick hadn't understood it. Miss Big had made up for the lack of leaves by arranging for strings of fairy lights to be draped between the trees.

It was beneath one particularly festooned tree that Nick found Finnick. For all that the fennec could drink anyone under the table and put away mugs of coffee, his true vice was really smoking. That was why he was still out here puffing away when most of the Enforcers were done with their smoke break.

Nick knew he'd been spotted when Finnick's squashed pack of cigarettes disappeared beneath one of his many layers of coats. Some things never changed.

"Quit bumming smokes off me, Nicky," Finnick said when Nick stepped on the flagstone Finnick had staked out for his smoke break.

Nick waved his unlit cigarette at him. "Got a light?"

Finnick was willing to spare this, though he did quip, "Can't quit the habit huh?"

Nick took a drag of his cigarette first, matching scent to memory, before saying, "I'm just being social."

"Whatever you're up to, I don't want any of it."

"Who said I was up to something?"

"Cos you're you? HEY!"

It was a simple matter to hold the fuzzy hat he'd swiped from Finnick way out of reach, and plop it on his head. "It looks so much better on me, doesn't it?" Nick winked down at the livid fennec.

"Your ugly mug ruins it. Do you know how fucking cold my ears get out here? Give it!"

It was really too bad Finnick wasn't above kicking mammals in the shins - couldn't be, given his height. Nick sighed and dropped the hat back in Finnick's outstretched paw. "You're no fun."

Despite cramming the hat back on his head, Finnick made his thoughts clear with his tone alone. "I stopped being fun when I got to know this joker who loves getting into trouble."

"Who is that guy? I need to shake his paw."

"Shut the fuck up, Wilde. I don't need that shit from a guy who called the same rabbit that got him into trouble."

For all that Honey said she was good at keeping secrets, Finnick seemed to know whatever she knew anyway. Since Nick already guessed this could happen, he had a ready reply. "Says the mammal who hired her for my birthday party."

"I didn't write that ad, Raymond did. Who knew she was answering ads on Cragslist?"

"My birthday preparations were only worth an ad on Cragslist? I am so hurt."

"I'd drop kick you off a crag if I could. If you ain't got nothing to say, quit yapping during my quiet time."

"Actually, I come bearing gifts." Nick pulled out the box he'd tucked under an arm. "In this box I have a kit the ZPD is using to test -"

"I don't want any of it." Finnick was more interested in blowing perfect smoke rings than the box. 

"C'mon, don't you think it'd be useful in these dangerous times?"

"Real useful for someone who ain't gonna see any savage mammals. 'Sides, word on the street is that you're hawking these test kits to Night Howler suppliers in exchange for deets on their stock. So no thanks, cos I can't pay whatcha charging."

"Can't I just be giving my oldest friend a gift out of the goodness of my heart?"

"Don't play like I don't know you went to Honey first. How 'bout you ditch whatever mess you're getting yourself into with the rabbit? I just might think about it then."

"There's no mess for you. All I need you to do is drive us around. You do plenty of driving for Mr. Big! I'll be entertaining Mrs. Otterton and Carrots will... probably not be happy to see me. So for the safety of the other drivers in Zootopia, help a guy keep that spat away from the wheel huh?"

"I drive goods, not mammals. Are you shipping that rabbit somewhere you aren't supposed to?"

Nick flicked ash off the tip of his cigarette. "Well, Mrs. Otterton offered to take her in, so I'll just leave it to them to figure out the legality of the whole situation - "

"So leave Otterton to it, and me out of it. And since you're at it, why don't you get yourself out too?"

"I was never in. I'm just getting them re-acquainted."

"Otterton told me about your plan." Finnick blew an entire mouthful of smoke in Nick's surprised face. "The otter was real cute, trying to give me instructions so I wouldn't miss her apartment. I already know three short cuts to that street. That rabbit really got to you, didn't she? She's got you playing the big damn hero."

"There's no heroics here. If the bunny doesn't make it to the rendezvous point we're leaving without her."

"So what's with Otterton going in to get her then?"

"Mrs. Otterton wanted to see her husband. I thought I'd close two deals at the same time."

"Otterton might be a sucker, but Honey and I? We've seen you sell ice to polar bears. You could've talked either of them out of it."

"Hey I had to help a buddy keep his earnings for the day! The only other thing we had were pawpsicles. I think the situation we have here would be a little more under control if you just agree to drive. So how about it huh? For old times' sake?"

"I'm only agreeing cos I don't ever want a repeat of your stupid face after she ditched you at your own party. Put your own head on straight before Tues will you?" Finnick flicked the remains of his cigarette to join the rest on the ground, before grinding it under his heel. "Don't waste your smokes, Nicky. Ciao."

"Worry about your own smokes," Nick called after Finnick's retreating form. As Nick took another draw, he watched the smoke and mist from his words mingle in the air.

 

Ever since Judy got her new phone, she found herself fiddling with it. She knew it by feel now - the contours of the back, the smoothness of the screen, the pebbled bumps of the keys. She even could trace the keys in order from 1 to 0, now that she knew the positions by heart. The phone was in silent mode, so she imagined her own beeps as she touched each of the numbers, all the different combinations of long-short, high-low, held-staccato.

She hadn't received any more calls on the burner phone. Only the call history proved that her conversation with Nick hadn't been her inner voice at work again. She'd thumbed the green phone button so many times that the symbol was starting to chip.

Yet she couldn't make herself push that button. Not when Chief Bogo was still calling her on her own phone. Not when she was wearing her ZPD uniform as she was now, with only the Kevlar left off. Not when she had mountains of case files to get through. And... and Nick had said...

She brought the phone to eye level to check the display. It was Tuesday, almost half an hour before noon.

_You have any idea how you're going to make it to the Main Street exit, sweetheart?_

"You tell me," she said to herself. "Since this was all planned by you. Well, the real you anyway."

_Probably not a good sign that you've stopped ignoring me._

She rolled off the bed to get to her feet. The floor was mostly clear, since she had stacked the ZPD files she had been given against the glass. Mr. Otterton had also stopped snarling at Judy now that she was out of sight. So she could pace without disturbing anything, or being disturbed. Honestly, she'd made her corner of the ward comfortable enough. She'd had worse during her days in the ZPD Academy.

_ZPD cadets are like savage mammals? That's reassuring._

The thought of her Academy days reminded Judy of her go-to warm up routine that she'd settled on during Academy. She launched into it with quick steps designed to bring her heart rate up from resting. She could work out a bit to build some appetite for lunch. Just because she had to stay here didn't mean she couldn't do anything.

She'd barely gotten a rep in when she heard the beep that meant the main door's keypad had been activated. Was lunch early? The rattle of the meal cart was missing, replaced by light quick footsteps.

It wasn't an orderly that appeared at the meal flap that Judy had to keep clear of files. It was Mrs. Otterton.

The hazmat suit she was wearing didn't hide the strain in her smile. "It's good to see you again, Officer. How has my Emmitt been? I'd ask him myself, but - " She trailed off wringing her hands.

Judy made herself look, bracing for snarls and lunges. Otterton was snarling, but it was directed at his leash. Ignoring his audience, he went back to chewing the pole the leash was attached to.

"He's doing - " Any cheer Judy had mustered fell away once she caught sight of Mrs. Otterton's bewildered stare. "Much better?"

"That's not my Emmitt," said Mrs. Otterton, her attention focused on the otter in the room opposite. "I have to help him. We can help him, once Nicky has everything in place."

Judy pressed her paws against the glass, even though what she really wanted to do was pound on it and tell everyone how wrong they were about what Judy could do. But she couldn't, especially now that the glass was sliding under her paws.

She took a step back as the door slid open by itself. Her paw went back to the burner phone, tucked away in her pocket. It wasn't vibrating yet, but she knew that it wasn't long until noon. Was this the diversion that Nick had been talking about?

Well if this was the diversion, she had to make use of it.

She entered the corridor that she'd only used once when she first arrived. She knew to her right was the door she'd come in by, the door she saw the orderlies use every day. She knew to the left were the savage mammals, and... and other mammals under quarantine. Normal mammals who were trying to keep their jobs, their families. She'd told Chief Bogo, and he'd only said she was helping in her own way.

Now... now was her chance to do more.

Safety first. She donned her Kevlar, her only protection. As she did, her paws brushed the badge pinned on it. Once, she would have considered the badge protection as well. Once, she deserved to wear the badge. But in all the time she'd worn the badge, she hadn't been worthy of its values to protect and serve. She hadn't helped any of the mammals she'd met.

Taking it off was just as easy as putting it on each morning. Her badge was a good match with the ZPD emblem emblazoned on the file she laid her badge on.

She turned away from both - she had a lot to do, and very little time to do it. Next she left Mrs. Otterton whispering to her husband, left the savage mammals who were trying to keep her in their sight, left the exit behind to cross to the other side of the ward. The mammals here were cautious too, but they showed their aggression with questions instead of teeth.

"Who are you?"

"It's one of them cops..."

"Did you just walk in here?"

She ignored their questions. Maybe once she'd figured out the keypad, there would be no need to answer.

Judy had never actually seen an orderly key in the code. While savage mammals came in all sizes, the hospital had chosen megafauna orderlies to subdue any attempts by the savage animals to escape. No matter how Judy tried to peek, the bulk of the orderlies were always in the way.

But she knew the tones of the code. She jabbed at the numbers on the keypad, listening for the beeps that matched the ones in her memory.

She heard the door click open before the glass slid away to the surprise of the polar bear on the other side.

"I know you agreed to be quarantined. But if you've changed your mind, if any of you have changed your mind - " She turned to meet the astonished stares of the mammals around her. "I can free you now."

"Is this for good?" a hyena demanded.

"I don't know. But do you want to stay here when there are alternatives? Don't you want to go back to your families? Here." She reached for her notebook and showed the polar bear the pages where she'd written the details of the test kits that the ZPD had been using. "Look at this. We can do these tests, instead of being here."

"Well I'm out of here." The hyena pounded against her glass. "Get this open will ya?"

The chorus of agreement had Judy opening doors and handing out scrawled notes of the tests. After that, opening the main doors of the ward was easy. The mammals in the corridor streamed out, except for Judy and one other. Mrs Otterton was still whispering to her husband.

"Mrs. Otterton? You should go."

"I don't understand. He's ignoring me."

Judy dropped to a crouch, tried to see things from the Ottertons' angle. "Maybe... maybe he doesn't recognise you with the hazmat suit."

With a swiftness Judy admired, Mrs. Otterton unfastened her hazmat helmet and pulled it off. "Emmitt?" Mrs. Otterton tried again.

This time, Mr. Otterton peeked out from under the bed, his nose twitching as he finally focused on the two mammals on the other side of the glass.

"Emmitt, I've finally found you." Mrs. Otterton's relief was etched in every word. "How are you feeling? Is there anything I can do for you?"

Mr. Otterton crept towards them, as if fascinated by what Mrs. Otterton was saying. His progress was cut short by the leash pulling taut around his neck.

Immediately he set upon the post he was tethered too, the metal clanking with the force of his attack.

Mrs. Otterton cried out at the sight. "That leash is bothering him! Oh Officer, can't you help? We have to do something!"

Judy should have been inspired by how resolutie Mrs. Otterton had been in removing her gear. But the thought of removing one more layer of protection between her and the screeching otter made Judy press her paws against the glass to reassure herself it was still there.

"You managed to open the main doors, didn't you? Please, he won't go anywhere with how he's tied up. Let me comfort him."

Mrs. Otterton was wearing the same woeful expression when she'd shown Chief Bogo the picture of her family. It should have moved Judy as it had then. But Judy also remembered facing down Mr. Manchas, and how Nick had been wounded. Mrs. Otterton was making a dangerous request, and Judy couldn't - 

Yet the glass under Judy's paws was sliding aside again. She snatched her paws back just to be sure she wasn't making the doors open. Just in time - she had to clap her paws over her ears next as a cacophony of snarls and yelps exploded around them. All the doors had been opened, and every mammal had gone into a frenzy at the sudden change.

Even above the noise, Judy heard two distinct sets of footfalls. One was from the other side of the main door, where the rest of the hospital was coming to see what had happened. The other set were from a savage bear that had burst its leash and was now on the run.

Judy took Mrs. Otterton by the paw, and hurried them out of the ward.


	10. Got to understand

The good thing about pretending to be a doctor was that it still let Nick wear his suits. It also required very little in terms of gear. He'd borrowed the lab coat from the hospital itself, just to be sure that it had the right markings. He'd grabbed a set of scrubs for Mrs. Otterton at the same time. The test kit under his arm was the only thing he had put together, and even that had been a simple matter of repurposing the kit he'd meant for Finnick.

Once both he and Mrs. Otterton were properly attired, no one batted an eye as they made their way through the wards. It was visiting hours, which meant they could go anywhere with patients and Nick didn't have to flash the pass that Honey had coded for him.

He only had to use it on the room where they kept the hazmat suits. Nick skipped this part of the costume. One, the pass still couldn't get him into the ward Mr. Otterton was in, because that was protected by key codes. Two, Nick didn't particularly want to walk into a room of savage mammals. But out of the kindness of his heart, he was going to help Mrs. Otterton do exactly that.

For that, he needed the orderly that was packing his cart at the door of the ward. Nick had discovered the moose had this habit from the videos, which made him perfect for what Nick had in mind.

"Excuse me!" Nick called up. The moose only glanced down at the pair, but the slant of his ears towards them showed he was listening. "You mind serving lunch a little later than usual? See, my wonderful helper here, best nurse in the hospital, she needs to run some tests. Tests that just have to taken before food, after food, whatever you've heard at the pharmacy. So let's give each other space to work, huh?"

"Sure." The moose's packing slowed to a crawl even Flash could have outstripped.

He'd left this part to Mrs. Otterton, not because she was a lady but because he'd knew Mrs. Otterton got what she wanted when she asked for it. "Before you go," she called up to the moose. "Would you mind getting the door for me? It's hardly otter-sized."

The moose jabbed in the code, and Mrs. Otterton was free to go, just like that.

Nick winked at her. "Be a doll and get it all done before noon, OK? You know where to find me."

"I can't th-" When Nick frowned down at her, Mrs. Otterton cut off her thanks. "- wait to start!" She settled for squeezing Nick's paws and shooting both mammals a bright smile, before disappearing into the ward.

Nick turned to the moose to make sure the mammal hadn't spotted Nick's damage control. He needn't have worried. The moose had finally gotten his lunch cart arranged to his liking, and was now wheeling it away from the ward. 

Nick couldn't help but grin at the sight. "That's my cue to leave. Duty calls, yadda yadda."

The moose grunted his dismissal, but Nick still rounded a few more corners, and even a ward for good measure. The plan was now in motion, and he had to make sure the pieces were moving right.

Nick found the hospital garden, sparing a wave for a nearby security camera before fishing out his burner phone. "Finn, done enjoying your joy ride?"

"You're just pissy cos you aren't getting to break the speed limit."

"Pass, I've lost years off my life when _you_ break the speed limit."

"And you still get lifts from me. I'm back in the parking lot. We on for noon?"

"Otterton's in place. For the bunny, I just need to wait for the cue from Honey - hang on, I got a call." Nick did not like the number he was seeing on his screen, but he switched the call anyway. "Umka! I thought you weren't supposed to call."

"I can't pretend to be savage, Wilde."

"That's a pity. I was really looking forward to meeting the family, how old is your daughter again?"

"I can't because I'm not in the ward anymore."

"What, you saw some open doors and decided to make a break for it?" Nick turned back the way he'd came, though he took the more direct route this time.

"A bunny cop let us all out."

Nick wasn't sure which part of that sentence was more worrying - that the bunny was involved, or that _all_ the mammals in the ward were somehow loose. Or maybe the entire statement should not exist. And - and Honey was calling.

He hung up on Umka without a goodbye, but instead of the tirade he'd expected, Honey was _cackling_.

"Are you bringing the bunny home this time, Nicky?" she got out between cackles.

" _No._ " Nick had that part all planned out too, if anyone would actually stick with the plan.

"Aww! I wanted to pop by and shake her paw! Do you know what she did in the ward? It's amazing!"

"C'mon, Honey, don't you at least draw the line when it comes to savage mammals?"

Honey's snort briefly blotted out all other sound. "Does she look that dumb to you? ... Huh, maybe she is that dumb."

"So there are savage mammals?"

"One. Someone's been reading their Shakesdeer. Exit, pursued by a bear."

Nick broke into a run, although that sent the slighter larger than fox size lab coat flapping about his ankles. "Who's being chased by the bear? Where are they now, Honey?"

"The bunny has Otterton in tow and they just passed Ward 2C. Followed by the bear. Are you running towards trouble, Nicky? You forgot how hard bears can hit?"

"Not going to be staying still long enough. Keep an eye out for me."

"I've got enough to spare." The camera in front of Nick jerked towards him in a long-distance salute. "Got a plan?"

"I'll figure it out. How about you get on the horn with Finnick?"

The click on Honey's end of the line was answer enough. Nick too cut the line - he had to focus on where he was going, if he was going to go face to face with a savage bear. Ward 2F... 2E... not long after this turn...

What he came face to face with was a lot worse than a savage bear.

It was Judy Hopps in the flesh, her eyes meeting Nick's with a flash of recognition that felt like it ought to belong in a science lab behind a safety screen - 

And that was as far as Nick got before she flung Mrs. Otterton right into Nick's arms. Nick caught the frantic otter before realising that the bunny had redirected her momentum from running to bound off the nearest wall, pinballing between vertical surfaces before driving all that force into a nearby medical cart.

The cart barrelled towards the bear. There was an almighty crash when the bear shouldered the cart aside. From the way the instruments on the cart went flying, it still had to hurt. Nick's suspicions were proven when the bear bellowed at Hopps.

Hopps looked back at them, and said, "Run."

The word invoked the memory of the other savage mammal that Nick had fled from. But this time, it was Mrs. Otterton who tugged on Nick's arm. This time, Hopps threw one of the fallen instruments at the bear, before leaping right over his head to bolt in the other direction. She was followed by the bear, who wasn't going to shrug off her attack.

"Nicky, please," Mrs. Otterton whispered. "We can't help. Let's go. Let's just go!"

Nick turned and pulled Mrs. Otterton into the stairwell he'd spotted earlier. Mrs. Otterton was right. He couldn't do anything about savage mammals, that was the last thing that he was qualified to do.

He hated the part of him that wasn't sure if Judy Hopps was qualified either.

Mrs. Otterton and Nick hit the ground floor exit soon enough. Nick had seen enough of maps and blueprints to reorientate them and hit Main Street. The ambulance idling at that exit had to be the right one.

Nick wrenched the door open to Finnick snapping, "Shut the damn door behind you."

"The bunny's out there."

"There's a damn savage mammal out there! I ain't taking my chances until the bunny shows. Shut the door, find out where she is if you hafta."

As Mrs. Otterton and he tugged the door shut, Nick fired off a text to Honey to find out where Hopps was. Even if Honey hadn't insisted they had to destroy the burner phones, Nick would've tossed his once he saw what Honey had to say. Honey's latest message was just one more in a series of bad news he got on this phone.

Just one more check before he smashed everything to bits. He called Hopps. He called Hopps even though he didn't know if she could pick up or if she still had her phone - oh, the call had gone through. On the other end of the line, Nick heard silence instead of the crashing sounds of a chase. "Anytime now, sweetheart," he prompted.

"Noon, Main Street exit. I know."

"Do they teach up from down in bunny school? If you think we're waiting up on the third floor, darling, you'll be disappointed."

"I've put tickets on cars made for giraffes." Hopps offered this non sequitur in reply. "I just need a window. Just - "

Whatever she said was cut off by a challenging bellow. Whatever she said was replaced by silence.

"Carrots? Hopps?" Nick called into the dead - no it wasn't dead the network signal was _fine_ \- line. "Judy!"

A thunk on the dash drew Nick's attention. Finnick had dropped his sunglasses, and disbelief dripped from each syllable he spoke. "What. The hell."

Despite himself, Nick clambered to the front of the ambulance to see.

He'd been there when Judy Hopps had cuffed a savage jaguar. He'd been there when she had kicked a medical cart right at a savage bear. Yet watching her pinball around a corridor was entirely different from watching her leap out of a window to bound off the walls.

She ended her controlled fall with a tuck and roll. Finnick recovered the fastest, kicking the ambulance into gear. It wasn't easy for Nick to get to the doors with the fishtail Finnick had thrown the vehicle into, but he managed it. He threw them open as soon as the ambulance stopped.

Judy clambered inside under her own power. Nick slammed the door shut, wishing he could do the same with his thoughts. He wanted to grab Judy and - shake some sense into her, that had to be it.

Not here. Not when Finnick was waiting for his free entertainment. They had a long drive ahead of them, and if Nick took some time to put his thoughts together, what of it?

By the time Nick turned around, he had a ready joke on his tongue. "Decided that you'll drop by?" he quipped.

Judy didn't seem to be listening. It was hard to tell, with how she'd tucked herself into a ball. It hadn't seemed important to check if she was injured earlier. Now Nick wished he had before Judy had gone on the defensive.

"We stole ourselves a fully stocked ambulance, much better than any first aid kit. It's got bandages, medicine, machines, whatever you want we've got it. Probably."

He was too used to Judy's quick response, whether it was a retort or a notebook to the face. Without a reaction and her expression hidden behind her knees, he had no cues to work from. His first instinct was to reach out. Yet uncertainty stayed his paw before he made contact. Was this right? What else could he try - ?

Mrs. Otterton didn't wait for Nick to figure it out. She marched up to Judy and wriggled into the curve of her arms until she'd burrowed enough space for her to hug Judy properly. Judy leaned into the contact, dropping her head to press against the top of Mrs. Otterton's.

Right, there were mammals more qualified than he was here. Nick should probably give them some space. "We'll let you know when we're dropping you off," he said, even though words didn't seem to fit the atmosphere in the back of the ambulance. "If you need anything else, we'll be up front."

In an ambulance sized for larger mammals, it was easy enough for Nick to clamber into the front seats. Finnick had already donned his sunglasses, so Nick followed suit. The both of them spent the rest of the ride in a mutual need for quiet.

 

The constant rush of the river had yet to fade into the background for Judy. The burble of water kept shifting as it hit the sticks that made up the walls of the Ottertons' house, or the plants that grew in a lattice over the exterior. On the inside, the Ottertons' had chosen pictures for their decoration instead. From every wall, the Ottertons beamed down at Judy.

Including Mr. Otterton. The green armchair Judy was sitting in faced a familiar photo that had been framed and hung by a door. Judy traced the edges of the smaller version that she'd pulled from her pocket. She'd carried it for what seemed like a lifetime, ever since Mrs. Otterton had given it to her at the start of the case. She had memorised Mr. Otterton's content expression, the easy curve of his arm around his wife, his other paw resting on his son's shoulder, his wife mirroring him by pulling her younger son close. Yet she couldn't make herself look away.

"Dinner's ready!" Mrs Otterton called.

Above the water Judy heard the thump of running feet before she saw the two sons through the doorframe. The younger blinked at her, still unused to seeing a rabbit in their living room. The older boy had made up his mind already, making sure she saw his scowl before darting into the dining room.

That was fine. It was what she deserved.

No sooner had the kids ducked out of sight did Mrs. Otterton herself come into the living room. "I know the smell of fish isn't all that nice, but we'd like for you to come eat with us. It's what we've always done with guests."

It was almost like listening to her mom lecture the Hopps brood about guests. As Judy did when hearing the dinner bell back home, she put what she was holding away and headed to the dining room.

Dinner at the Ottertons' was a smaller affair, and even if her plate hadn't been the only salad on the table Judy would have no problem spotting her seat. The smell of fish was very strong - Judy focused on that and the sound of the water. If she didn't pay attention to spread on the table and the glare from one corner, she could pretend that she was at the river that ran through Bunnyburrow - 

"She's taking Dad's seat."

"Danny! She's a guest - " Mrs. Otterton's rebuke trailed off as Judy swapped the plates for the two empty seats.

"It's ok, Mrs. Otterton. Thank you for having me." Below the table, Judy rubbed her fingers on the table cloth to clean the fish's juices from her fur.

"Don't listen to Danny. We're grateful that you found their father. Having you here is the least we could do."

"Now I'm here," Judy said in the brightest tones she could muster. "So how about we eat?"

The act was good enough for Mrs. Otterton. With a grateful smile she turned her attention to her younger son, coaxing him to eat while he told her all about his football match. Judy didn't have the energy to follow the conversation, or try to humour Danny and his dark mood.

There was also the challenge of the food on her plate. She should be grateful that predators had any food for a herbivore. But she had to suppress a wince when her tongue touched the mayonnaise slathered over the potato slices in the salad. The cocktail fruit heavy with syrup was only slightly better. Judy busied herself cutting her food into smaller pieces, so she could at least taste the potato and fruit under all the toppings.

"Mom, she's playing with her food," Danny drawled.

"Hush, Danny. Don't think I didn't notice you haven't touched your potatoes." Mrs. Otterton looked up from cleaning up the mess made by her younger son in his enthusiasm. "Is there something wrong with the food, Officer?"

"No! No there's nothing wrong! I - I just haven't had potato salad in, uh, a long long while, not because I don't like it, but because.... because I've been on hospital food!"

"Should I get you something lighter then?" Mrs. Otterton wondered.

"Oh no! No! Don't trouble yourself. I'll just take things slow."

Judy did. Even Danny didn't manage to outlast her, though he seemed content to sit and glare over an empty plate. Mrs. Otterton was having none of that and chivvied her oldest to do his homework.

Judy finished just as Mrs Otterton started cleaning the dishes. Judy brought her plate over to add to the soapy pile. "How can I help, Mrs. Otterton?"

"What I said earlier wasn't just a show for the boys, Officer."

"It's just plain Judy." It seemed Mrs. Otterton hadn't noticed that Judy's Kevlar was missing its badge.

"Then you should call me Octavia."

"Octavia." At the answering smile from Mrs. Ot - Octavia, Judy pressed on. "Let me dry the dishes."

"As I said at dinner, having you here is enough. No one seemed to care that you found my husband and all the other missing mammals. I want you to know that I am so terribly grateful for what you've done for our family."

"You trusted me first. You didn't know I could find your husband, ma'am."

"Octavia," the otter repeated. "You did, and that's all that matters to me. The rest is out of our hands, Judy. Neither of us know how to fix what's happened to my husband, and we just have to trust that there are mammals who can. Now, I'm sure you're still tired from your stay in the hospital, so why don't you take a bath, and rest in the bedroom I showed you earlier?"

"Are you sure you can manage alone, M - Octavia?"

"Goodness knows Emmitt hates doing the dishes when he's home. No, I'll be fine by myself. I'm not sure about you, do you need anything for your bath?"

"I'll be fine. Thank - " Octavia was already waving the thanks off with sudsy paws. Judy felt a rush of affection for this otter who kept making Judy's life better.

Her improved mood lasted until Judy started to clear her pockets to take a bath. She found the photo that she'd tucked away earlier, Mr. Otterton looking nothing like what he'd been in the hospital. Despite all the attempts by the hospital, there was no improvement in Mr. Otterton's behaviour.

Octavia was wrong. Judy did know how to fix what had happened to Mr. Otterton. But to do that, she needed to fix other things first. She needed to find Nick.

She laid the family photo that Octavia had given her on top of the clothes that had been laid out, and let herself out.


	11. Take my hand

When Nick alighted from his ride home, he had his shades in place to shield his tired eyes.

Dealing with Honey had caused most of his exhaustion. She'd been fascinated by everything that had gone down in the hospital - the savage mammals, the hacked doors, the bunny at the centre of it all. Nick hadn't shared her fascination, and she hadn't shared Nick's concerns that they'd be caught. But they'd managed to go through the cam footage. Nick had made sure that there was nothing incriminating as Honey spun theories about what was on the screen.

Nick spared a moment to be thankful as he waited for the lift to bring him to his floor. He had managed to keep the camera from capturing his handsome features, though his fine figure made a few fleeting guest appearances. Nick had no plans on testing Mr. Big's sincerity on his debt.

There were still plenty of other problems. Nick mulled these as he walked to his apartment. The savage mammals at the hospital had all been contained, even the escaped bear, but the public were nervous about the other quarantined mammals that had escaped. Mrs. Otterton hadn't kept her hazmat suit on, and had been recorded on several cameras. And Judy -

Judy couldn't be sitting outside his apartment, could she?

The bunny on his doorstep was curled up with her face hidden behind her knees, so close to the figure that Judy had cut in the ambulance that it had to be her. After all this time, Nick still didn't know what to do. There was no Mrs. Otterton to defuse the situation. There was no Finnick to sit in silence with.

He'd spent too long deciding. Judy sensed that someone was looking at her and looked up. Nick was glad he had his shades on. There was no reason why his eyes should linger on the pleased surprise in her expression, or the way she'd leapt to her feet.

"Nick! Oh Nick." She took a step forward, then seemed to think better of it. But words seemed to have returned to her with how she rattled on, "I've been reading all these files on Night Howler cases. I think I know how to prove someone with Night Howlers has been targeting predators on purpose and making them go savage."

After all the time since he'd left her apartment and all that had happened since, the case was what she really cared about. "Wow," he uttered, and couldn't manage anymore. It was easier to turn and walk away. He didn't know how she had found his apartment, but he had places to go that even Finnick didn't know of.

As Nick walked he was tempted to slouch, stick his paws in his pockets like he hadn't done since his teens, since he started working for the mafia. The press of the carrot pen in his pocket put that notion out of his mind.

That and Judy calling after him, "Wait. Wait!"

He stopped, a paw already on the stair's handrail.

"I know I don't deserve your help, after all I did to get your help before, and how I turned you down. I made a mistake. I made so many mistakes, because I was ignorant and irresponsible and small-minded. I have to fix them, but I can't do it without you."

Enjoy this while it lasts, Wilde. Who knows, it could just blow up all over again.

But maybe it could last a little longer. He hit the record button on the carrot pen.

"And after we're done, you can hate me, and that will be fine - " Judy didn't sound fine, with the way her voice wavered under the force of tears. "- because I put you in danger, and I hurt you with all the terrible things I said. You can walk away, knowing you were right all along. I really am just a dumb bunny in a cop costume."

It was actually sort of funny, in a tragic way. Judy had no idea that she'd saved Nick from Mr. Big's wrath. That Nick had grown accustomed to her turning up like a bad penny, even in random videos from Honey.

And speaking of other recorded things...

He rewound the carrot pen. Maybe hearing her own words would make her realise how ridiculous they sounded.

" _I really am just a dumb bunny in a cop costume._ "

Perfect. Play it again, maestro.

Hearing the recording again gave him the confidence to turn around to see Judy's expression for himself. Her wide wondering eyes were filled with tears, and she looked lost. Perhaps a little reminder then, of how confident she'd been when she first found him at this apartment building. "I'll let you delete this," he said. "In 48 hours."

Her smile was still dazzling, even through her tears. He had to spread open his arms and offer, "Alright, get in here."

She crossed the corridor to lean against his chest, and he wrapped her in an embrace he hadn't known he'd been craving.

 

Maybe Finnick and Honey were right all along. Maybe Nick was really hung up on the bunny.

There was no other reason why Nick was sitting on his couch, instead of in a car that was driving Judy back to Mrs. Otterton's. No, instead of making the smart choice, Nick had asked if Judy would like to try another kind of safe house. Safe house, with a space. Which was his apartment.

So that was why Nick had been banished to his own living room, trying to listen for the sound of running water from Judy's shower. And wondering if it was safe to go into the bedroom and lay out some clothes for Judy, since he'd forgotten to do that earlier. Or if he should skip that so that Judy would come out in just a towel - 

New lows, Wilde, new lows.

But he was pretty - no, definitely sure that the shower had been turned off long ago, and Judy was still in there. While she probably hadn't fallen asleep in the shower and drowned, the silence was a bit worrying. She had been swaying on her feet earlier, so it was only right to check on her.

With his mind made up, Nick got off the couch. He headed towards the bathroom through his bedroom - that would give Judy time to react, if she was still in the bathroom.

He immediately saw that she wasn't. Judy Hopps was curled up in his bed, impossibly small compared to the way she carried herself when she was awake.

Night vision let Nick know that she hadn't been planning to fall asleep, because she was sleeping pillowed on her arms instead of the exceptionally comfy pillows Nick had picked out. She was clutching a pair of pants she'd raided from his drawer, with a safety pin half stuck in the waist band. She'd made it as far as putting on one of Nick's shirts, though night vision didn't tell him what colour.

The safety pin was the only thing he dared to touch, removing it in case she pricked herself in her sleep. Even that small movement already had her frowning and burrowing into the sheets. Pulling a blanket over her was probably out of the question. He let her be, and backed out of the room, closing the door behind him.

It wasn't until he was in his kitchen, contemplating water on his counter or that box of Nestpresso capsules in his cupboard or any of the far, far stronger options that his mind caught on to what he'd seen earlier. Judy Hopps. In his den, in his bed, in his _shirt_.

No. No, don't think about it that way Wilde. Think in terms of fair play, tit-for-tat, one good turn for another. The bunny had brought him to her apartment and wrapped his wounds and put him in her bed with her scent so Nick just had to do the same in return.

Scratch the scent part. Maybe Nick should get a new nose while he was at it, because he had picked up rabbit in the same kitchen as him, and Judy was _sleeping_ -

"Nick?"

Seemed like his nose was smarter than the rest of him. He kept his eyes on the array of drink choices in front of him, though the stronger options hidden elsewhere looked far more tempting now. "You need something?" he asked a water jug.

Out of the corner of his eye, Judy hesitated at the doorway to the kitchen, before slouching over to join him. "Do - do you have any coffee?"

She'd been a wreck when he'd first showed her the showers. The brief nap didn't seem to have helped the bags under her eyes. "No can do, Fluff. You look like a gust of wind is going to blow you over."

"Can't sleep now," she said, and tried to reach up for the coffee capsules.

Nick reached over her head and shifted the box of capsules to a higher shelf. "Carrots, the ZPD isn't expecting any work from you. Could you actually take a holiday for once, hmm?"

"I'm not - it's not the case." She jumped and managed to swipe the capsules off the shelf, but didn't quite stick the landing.

Nick wrapped an arm around her waist to steady her. This close, he wasn't just smelling bunny. This close, Judy's scent was bunny mixed in with his scent from both his sheets and his shirt. It finally clicked the shirt she was wearing was the same one he'd worn when he first met her in that bar.

"Hold still," he murmured, and dropped his head to just take in the scent of her. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine that she could be his, he just -

Don't go there, Wilde.

Judy had already tensed at the proximity, poised on the edge of... flight? Fight? He couldn't tell by feel what type of anticipation trembled under his touch.

When he opened his eyes and pulled back for a better look, anticipation seeped out from her like air out of a balloon. She dropped the box of capsules on the counter.

The sound startled Nick into being aware of his arm around her waist. He let her go and turned to his coffee machine. "What kind do you want? Espresso, latte, cappucino - "

"Can I - can I just help myself - ?"

"You're the guest, Carrots. I'm looking for top marks in the customer experience survey, though you need to tell me what's wrong with the bed before I can fix that."

"No! No there's nothing wrong with the bed, or the pillows, or the sheets. It's just -" She looked down at her feet, one paw drifting up to rub her arm " - dreams that's all."

The usual quips died on Nick's tongue at the sight. It was like watching Judy scrunch herself into a tiny ball again, whether it was at the back of an ambulance or on his doorstep. This time though, this time Nick thought he knew what he should do.

Her ears shot straight back up when he tucked a finger under her chin. He ignored her twitching nose to do his best impression of a doctor looking over a patient. "As expected," he said, peering in each of her eyes in turn. "All that's up here is fluff..." He swept her ears apart to check the top of her head. "... a few stray thoughts about coffee... but dreams? I'm not seeing any." He took a step back so he could grin down at her. "Congratulations, you're now dream free."

"And how would you know?" Finally there was some of her old verve in her gentle ribbing.

Nick tapped the side of his muzzle. "Fox magic."

"Uh huh. I think you just made that up."

Nick put on his most innocent look as he gestured to himself. "Well, if you have to be such a skeptic, I do have something else." He'd squirreled boxes of these all over his apartment, and he pulled one out of a cupboard. "They're not much use for dreams, but I hear the ZPD uses them to test for savage animals.

Judy flipped open the box and her eyes widened. "How - how did you know -?"

"Some bunny might have told me. And I did a bit of asking around to put together my own version of ZPD's test kit."

She trailed her fingers over the contents of the box, as if awed by the simple contents within. With a paw on the small of her back, Nick guided her to the dining table. "I'll show you how it works."

He pulled out a chair for her before taking his own to pull things out of the box. "Blood pressure machine, thermometer, saliva tester, bloodwork set... where do you want to start, Carrots?"

She started to strap on the pressure cuff. "Will you know what to look for?"

"Carrots, I know everybody. It wasn't tough for me to find someone to explain the medical deets. Besides, I've had time to work on my pitch."

The machine beeped as the pressure cuff whooshed flat. Judy pointed at the readings. "Tell me what your pitch says about this then."

"Back up a little." He wrote down the readings so he wouldn't forget, then reactivated the blood pressure machine. "Here's what I've been telling everyone: What you need to know about these test kits is that we're only testing what we do know about savage animals. We know three things. Their blood pressure is higher than usual, they run hot, and they're hopped up on adrenaline." The machine beeped again. "How high does a bunny's blood pressure go, Carrots?"

She peered down at the readouts. "The doctor said that Grandpappy should bring down his blood pressure to about this."

"Let's hope what works for your Grandpappy works for you. Open up, sweetheart."

After a pause she let him put the electronic thermometer plus hygiene cover in her mouth. While she waited for her temperature, he started to strap himself into the blood pressure machine.

"You don't have to," she mumbled around her thermometer.

"I've been taking this test every day. Did you think I'd recommend something I hadn't tried myself? I don't want to go savage, Fluff."

The last part had come out a lot softer than he'd expected it. Thankfully the beep of the blood pressure machine meant he could fiddle with it instead to take the second reading. When he looked up Judy had the thermometer in a new hygiene cover and was holding it out to him.

Of the women Nick had been with, there'd been one that stuck around long enough to share a cup of ice cream with him by feeding him little spoonfuls. It was strange that taking the thermometer Judy offered in his mouth gave him the same rush of playful affection. Was this how she felt earlier when he'd offered the thermometer to her? Her ears were down, so he couldn't tell if they were dusted with a blush.

The beep of the reading should have startled the strange notion out of Nick's head, but he found himself focusing on how close her hand was to his muzzle as she took the thermometer from him. He could have turned his head to kiss her fingers, if he wanted to.

He couldn't, not unless he knew for sure she wanted this. He struggled to remember what came next. "What do you want next? There's a saliva test, that funny little stick that almost looks like a thermometer. Bloodwork's only needed once a week, but you could get it over with."

"No bloodwork today," Judy decided. "I'll - "

He'd already prepared the saliva test for her and held it out, waiting for her take it in her mouth. Unlike the thermometer, he didn't let it go when she closed her mouth over it. Over the top of the plastic test, Judy's eyes were just as wide as they'd been when he had leaned in to kiss her at Mystic Oasis.

He didn't do that right now, choosing to look down at the machine when it beeped. "Clean," he told Judy, and replaced the mouthpiece. Then he held out the machine to her.

When she took the machine and held it steady, Nick leaned in to touch his tongue to the mouthpiece. The machine wavered a little in her paws, but she didn't let go. Her gaze was steadier, though she was looking at his mouth instead of his eyes.

He only glanced at the read-out when it was ready, since he'd seen these readings before. "Still clean," he told Judy, who hadn't taken her eyes off his muzzle. "You know what? I think I forgot one more test."

That drew her eyes up to meet his for the briefest of seconds. "What is it?"

"It's a bit hard to describe. Let me show you, Carrots." He leaned across the kitchen table, stopped only when there was a hair's breath between their lips. He kept his eyes open this time - if she was going to turn him down, at least he wanted to see it happen this time.

A breath, two. Then Judy leaned in to press their lips together, and Nick let his eyes drift close.

 

Judy awoke surrounded by the scent of fox.

She had expected that. What she hadn't expected was that the scent didn't come from an actual fox. Instead it came from the sheets, the far too comfy pillow and the shirt she'd borrowed to wear to bed. Other than a lack of Nick, everything was as it was when she had fallen asleep yesterday.

So where was he anyway?

As she rolled out of bed she considered changing out of the shirt she'd slept in. But Nick knew the sizes of his shirts best, and she did want to get something that fit her better.

For now, she wanted out of the bedroom. She hadn't explored the rest of Nick's apartment though she now knew where the kitchen was. On a hunch, she went to the rooms on the opposite side. One of the doors was open, and she peered in. 

It occurred to Judy that she'd never really thought that Nick worked. He seemed too ready to follow a bunny around on an investigation to have his own responsibilities. Yet "working" was the best term to describe Nick and the array of documents across his desk that she was seeing now. Paper had been piled in heaps that made sense only to him, and he seemed to be marking crosses with no discernable pattern all over a paper map. Combined with the motivational poster that loomed over Judy on the door she'd just opened, she had to admit she too felt ready to roll her sleeves up.

It would be so easy to get to work too. Unlike that day when she'd gone undercover, Nick wasn't even trying to hide anything. Those stacks could have information on Mr. Big that the ZPD had been trying to uncover for _years_.

But she also wasn't a cop anymore.

She knocked on the door, staying well clear of the table. She had to keep to the safe topics. "Do you want breakfast?" she called out to Nick.

Nick paused in sipping his coffee. She didn't know how many cups he'd had, but the glint in his eyes seemed too bright to be natural. She found herself missing his soft gaze from last night, so different from his expression now.

"Is it really morning already?"

There were no windows at this part of the apartment, but Judy could see the sunlight creeping in from the other windows in the apartment. The slant convinced her that her answer was right, "It's morning. I wanted some food, so - "

Nick had already leapt out of his chair. He was very quickly in her space again, a paw beneath her elbow to guide her out of the office. "We should celebrate with a proper meal now that you're out of the hospital. I wanted to do that last night, but it seemed you wanted to be in bed a lot more."

He started out almost peppy, as if he was channeling all his caffeine into his words. Once he'd mentioned _last night_ , however, his voice had sidled down the register to a purring tease.

If she had been back at the bar they first met in, she would have thought he was flirting. If she had been looking him up immediately after getting the missing mammal case, she would have thought he was mocking her. If she hadn't offended him at her apartment, she would have thought his comments were just his way of showing his genuine attraction.

After the kiss last night, she wasn't sure if it was as simple as any of these. She also knew if she agreed to leave the apartment, she might never be sure. 

She decided to point out the obvious. "I don't have anything to wear out."

If anything, Nick's smirk widened. "I wondered when you'd realise that. Did you think it through before leaving the Otterton's? Or were you looking forward to wearing my shirts?"

She wondered if this counted as deja vu, since she was reminded of the last time he had been in her apartment, teasing her over her choice in clothing. That was just one of the many, many things she needed to _fix_.

So she started with, "Funny, I thought it was you who wanted to see me in your shirts."

With his paw on her elbow, she knew the instant his steps faltered. That gave her the confidence to continue, "Yeah, skipping the car, offering to let me stay with you, forgetting to get me a change of clothes... gosh, I wonder why I decided to wear your shirt in the end."

"That's not quite the whole picture, Carrots," said Nick, stil guiding her through the apartment.

"Then what is 'the whole picture'?" she mimicked his tone on the last.

"See, I had until Tuesday to get you out, lots of plans, lots of details. With all these pots I had on the fire, I forgot all about this." They'd finally reached the end of the living room nearest the door, where Nick picked up a suitcase that was very familar to Judy. "You forgot this at Mrs. Otterton's."

She took the suitcase she'd brought with her from Bunnyburrow over to the couch. From the weight it wasn't stuffed to the seams, but a glance inside proved that she had enough clothes for maybe a week.

Nick was already speaking into her wondering silence. "I don't blame you for wanting a change of clothes. Honestly do you dress in the dark, or do you like country chic that much? You might change your mind on the last if I take you shopping."

What Nick deserved was an exuberant hug or an overjoyed punch in the arm. All Judy could manage at the moment was to step closer to him and let her head fall forward to rest on his chest.

His arms went around her as they had yesterday. "Just over a suitcase of clothes, Carrots? Maybe I should've gotten you a new wardrobe."

"You don't even know my size," Judy muttered. His tail was tickling the back of her ankles, and she had to resist the urge to squirm out of range.

"I don't know, I think I've got a good _feel_ of your measurements."

That was awful enough that she was able to muster a punch she didn't know she had to his arm. He chuckled and stepped away, and she found herself missing his warmth.

Before she indulged again, she did need to know. "Is there anything else you forgot in your busy planning?"

"You mightn't want to take too long with your make-up, Fluff. We've got a lot of raised hackles to smooth among the families of the savage mammals, after everything that went down at the hospital."

Something that had been niggling at the back of Judy's mind all through reading the ZPD files finally fell into place. She wondered aloud, "Could we meet _all_ of them at once? There's something I need to know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can see the set-up here, and I meant to write smut... but it just didn't happen. Chapter updates should be fine, but smut is unlikely to happen anytime soon...
> 
> To make up for missing smut, have some lovely art by [thewyvernsweaver on Deviantart](https://thewyvernsweaver.deviantart.com/), who kindly agreed to draw Nick and Judy in the bunny costume I imagined for this verse. Enjoy and tell him if you liked it!
> 
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> 


	12. I don't know what this is

Nick Wilde stood outside a private room at Koslov's Palace, listening to the chatter of animals inside. The loud voice of Rocky Roni was unmistakable, but with a bit of straining Nick could make out the others, even the soft spoken Celia Manchas. He knew all of the families of the mammals who had gone savage since he'd taken the effort to look them up.

If it had been up to Nick, he would have met up with each family one by one, applied his charm to their soft spots and eased them into the idea he was about to present to them. But the meeting today wasn't for him. It was for Judy.

Next to him, Judy was chewing on her nails. He glanced down at her and had to quip, "Careful, Carrots. Any one watching us might think you were the one speaking instead."

"I should be," was her quick reply. It had to be the good night sleep that did her good. As much as Nick wanted to be the cause, bitter experience told him that way usually lead to disappointment. Low expectations, Wilde, to ease the inevitable crash later. Judy didn't notice, all of her attention on the room as she continued, "I read the case files, I know how to make sure their consent holds up in court."

Nick already had a lot of work to do just keeping Judy safe without going into what ifs anyway. Starting with reminding her, "If they give you their consent, they could also give your whereabouts away. We discussed this."

"I know. I just - " she blew out a sigh. "I wish I could do more to help."

"Hey, you've already offered to go to a prey only bar later. You sure we ought to start with the sheep?"

The nervousness had bled out of Judy to be replaced by a steeliness that Nick was more used to. "There was something about the way Bellwether asked me to go into quarantine. I think she knows more than she's letting on, and we can find out what that is by checking on the sheep gangs."

"Or we could start by checking on the Assistant Mayor that had the most to gain from Lionheart's arrest."

"I think we need more evidence before we can get a warrant for the Assistant Mayor's office."

"You've got to stop thinking like a cop, Fluff." All thoughts of a playful rap on her head were dispelled by the way Judy froze up. Way to go to remind her that her job was in limbo, Wilde, now pull your foot out of your mouth. "You're talking to me remember? Do I look like I care about warrants?"

That helped to ease enough of her tension that she gave him a playful shove. "Well, you better remember due process when you're talking to the mammals in that room."

"Consent, legality, yadda yadda." He winked down at her before he cracked open the door just wide enough to sidle in. Wouldn't do for Judy to be spotted.

Compared to the predators like polar bears and tigers, Nick was small enough that his entrance went unnoticed except by Mrs Otterton, who waved over Roni's shoulder. As soon as Roni shuffled his walker around to look, Nick jumped up on the table the wait staff had kindly put at the head of the room.

"Gentle creatures! I hope your time together has led you to discover what you all have in common. I hope you have realised that all of us in this room know someone who is currently held at Zootopia General Hospital in quarantine. To put it bluntly, we all know someone who has gone savage."

If the room hadn't been quiet before it was definitely quiet now. All attention was on Nick, who was the only mammal that everyone knew in this room.

"I can see from your faces that a lot of you are unhappy about this. Believe me, I understand. I don't think the recent escape from the ward makes you feel any better."

As expected the quiet of the room was burst by the sound of complaints. The voice of Roni in particular carried above the rest. "The doctors don't know what they're doing!"

Nick seized the chance to say, "That's what I wanted to say. That is correct. They don't know what they're doing. Now that we know that, why would we believe everything that they tell us?"

"We shouldn't!" Roni was quick to shout.

"They've been terrible to my Emmitt," Mrs Otterton agreed.

"They couldn't even cure my brother," added Celia Manchas.

"The lady hits the nail on the head. All your problems would be solved if your loved ones could be cured. If they could return to your families and your lives. Instead, you can't even see them because it's dangerous."

Manchas' ears were already flicking in irritation before Nick finished his spiel. "But the doctors say that there is no cure right now."

"I think everyone in this room has heard variations of that. That is what we've heard from the doctors. That they've been doing all the tests they can yet can't figure out _why_ our loved ones have gone savage. But we already said we shouldn't believe everything the doctors tell us."

"Who can we trust then?" Roni's demand was followed by murmurs of agreement.

"The ZPD." Nick didn't wait for the swell of resentment to rise into words. "See the doctors really haven't tried _every_ test for the cause of savagery. ZPD's test for savage animals is different from the tests your loved ones have been using."

"Could it be that the ZPD doesn't know what to test?" Celia Manchas asked.

"While that's true, do you think Zootopia General does?" Nick spread his paws. "Since their tests haven't worked, don't you think it's time to try something new for your loved ones? Don't you think the test the ZPD is using is worth a shot?"

"I think we should try." Mrs. Otterton flashed Nick a warm smile. He knew he could rely on her. He was more concerned about the way Roni was frowning.

Time to speed things up then. "Well if we're all agreed, how about signing these forms giving consent on behalf of your loved ones. I took the liberty of filling up their names, so please check them while you fill up more personal details, or if you don't remember I'll check in with the hospital - "

"Wait a minute," Roni cut in as he banged his walker for emphasis. "We don't know what's in the ZPD test kits. Maybe they aren't giving it to our loved ones cos something's wrong with it."

"There's more than 30 thousand ZPD officers, they can't be putting them all at risk."

Roni wasn't satisfied with Nick's explanation. "Well, I still had a good week to sign the papers that the hospital sent me. Seems like I ought to get the same here."

"Is it about understanding the forms? It's about understanding the forms. If I could help explain to you - "

"That sounds useful," Celia Manchas mused.

"- and anyone can listen in if they want to - "

"My forms are all signed," Mrs Otterton hastened to add. "I don't think I need an explanation to realise this is a wonderful idea - "

But the damage was already done. Other mammals were all clamoring to know what the forms were about. "What are we signing for?" Manchas wondered.

If the forms had been for Mr. Big, Nick would have lied. But Judy had gone to great lengths to remind Nick how important it was for everything to be above board.

So he said, "They're tests for Night Howlers."

The name drew confused stares, like it had from Nick at the Ottertons' and Miss Big at Koslov's Palace itself. "Purple Punch, also known as Midnicampum holicithias." Nick added the last even though that only drew a start of recognition from Mrs. Otterton. "They're used in a little bit of sports and a lot for farming, and like most chemicals it's possible to overdose on them! So if the doctors know for sure about that test, that's going to make finding a cure a whole lot easier, and everyone can recover and go back to singing kumbaya. But that can only happen if you sign these forms."

With that Nick should have had them. But Roni was already shaking his head. "It's been a while since I competed, but I know that sports and chemicals don't go together."

"How'd you explain Gator-rade then?" Nick asked. The rest of his audience laughed at Nick's quip and his exaggerated wink.

Roni had always been a harder nut to crack. Instead of laughing along, he was already turning his walker away from the forms.

"I don't think this test is as simple as you make it sound, and I can't risk the only family I have left over a maybe," Roni said as he passed Nick. Roni stopped at the main doors, before throwing this over his shoulder. "Until you can tell us why the ZPD have that test or prove that it works, I'm not signing anything."

 

There was definitely so much that Nick knew that the ZPD had been trying to uncover for _years_.

Come evening, Judy found herself in yet another mafia associated business. The parking garage that Nick and Judy were in was nothing like Koslov's Palace just this morning. It was a squat little building set in the flat of the Meadowlands as opposed to the sprawling ski complex Koslov had raised high above Tundratown by artificial means. Yet Mr. Big had selected this rundown little place because it offered good views of the heart of sheep controlled territory. Good views that the ZPD would have loved to pay a visit to observe from. Good views thay Judy and Nick were now observing from the second storey window of the garage.

It wasn't as if the Cloven Hoof did much to hide itself. It was a neon beacon this late at night. In the glare of its sign sheep and goats gathered at the bar in large enough numbers that they'd spilled out onto the road. Despite their heavy wool all of them spotted wool denim decorated with the symbols that showed they were of the Woolmark gang. Some were already tottering around in various states of intoxication, though she was pretty sure not all of it was alcohol. It was why the Cloven Hoof had appeared all over the Night Howler files Judy had been reviewing. _Too stupid to hide_ , had been scrawled on a particularly messy page.

Nick was painting a totally different picture from what the ZPD had as they watched the sheep mill below. "What you need to know about the Woolmarked is that it's hard to pull the wool over their eyes. They'd know that you don't belong. Spend as much time looking at sheep as they do, and you can tell any mammal apart. That and have you seen the way they style their wool? What happened to a nice fringe?"

"Is your side gig giving make-over to mammals? Are you going to work your magic on them next?"

"Hmm, I don't think so. Figure hugging wool denim works best when there's a figure to hug."

The way Nick's eyes raked down made it clear that he thought Judy had the right figure. He'd convinced her to wear the same type of denim the Woolmarked did, which was tighter than the jeans Judy usually wore and seemed to make Nick keen to find out if it was too tight to fit his paws down them.

But he'd kept them to himself, though the way his eyes lingered now made Judy think his resolve was being tested. "Sure I can't talk you into more denim? Plaid doesn't do justice to how gorgeous you are."

If she couldn't stop blushing at his attention and flattery, she had to get back at him in other ways. "Funny, I think it does. The last time I wore this top, you thought I was cute enough to try and pick me up."

"So I did." He leaned against the window ledge in a way that reminded Judy of the figure he'd cut at the bar counter when he first talked her up. "Well I don't have to worry about other foxes at a prey-only bar, but sheep are best at making sheep's eyes. I'll be jealous if your head got turned by any of them."

The admission moved Judy to lay a paw on his arm with tenderness. "Nick, I wouldn't - "

"I've always wanted to find out how fluffy a sheep is, and you'll find out before I do. Sheep never let me get close. I'd totally get it if you ended up leaving with any of them to get frisky." He waggled his eyebrows, as if it were a joke they were both in on.

Did he really think her the sort of mammal who jumped into bed with anyone? Was that how he thought of her even as he broke her out of hospital?

She was too tired for this. Get enough evidence to build a convincing case that Night Howlers could turn mammals savage, then figure out the contrary tangle that was Nick. She had all the relatives of the savage mammals to convince. She had to look at the big picture before her personal issues.

She still sighed as she dropped her paw and conceded, "We're here to gather information. I think we should make a start on our plan."

"Enough wool gathering for the both of us." Nick straigthened both his posture and his suit. "You ready, Fluff?"

"I'm wired up. Can you hear me?"

"You've got to get a bit further than this before we can tell." Nick shoved his paws in his pocket. "Is it true what they say about rabbit feet and luck?"

Judy should have rested more after Nick's chat with the relatives so that she could spare more energy to figure out Nick's convoluted way of talking. The way his tail was tickling her heels didn't help. "That's an old wives' tale."

"Well keep on your feet. Wouldn't do to lose that luck now."

She rolled her eyes at his wink. "I'll find my feet," she threw over her shoulder.

As she went down the stairwell she did one last run through her inventory. A list scrawled on paper, check. Burner phone with a faked call history to some Woolmarked contacts, check. A roll of cash held together with a rubber band, check.

Her wire of course. As she came out the back of the garage and took the long detour to approach the bar from another direction, she tapped on the ear piece. "Do you read me?"

" _Loud and clear._ " His voice in her ear was an unmistakable sign he was on the wire. " _You called pretty quick. Already missing my voice, Carrots?_ "

"You're more likely to miss mine. I won't be able to talk in the bar."

" _Not to me,_ " he admitted. " _But I'll be able to listen to your scintillating conversations with others. And you'll have your very own commentary going on in the background. Background of the players, keeping score of your verbal parries and fouls, giving you suggestions -_ "

"If you can hear anything other than your own voice." Her annoyance at his suggestion that she would leave with someone at the bar bled into her tone. She struggled to tamp down her emotions. Getting annoyed at Nick while undercover was exactly what had happened at the Bigs. She'd handled it then, and she could handle it now. "Could you please keep the chatter down? I think I need to concentrate."

Nick was quiet for long enough that Judy almost thought it was her turn to offend him instead. She was just mulling an apology when Nick spoke up. " _For what it's worth, I think you'll do just fine._ " If he was serious, that was undermined by his quip, " _You do have me after all._ "

He wasn't wrong. That Judy had made it this far, that she had her props, that she had a _wire_ was thanks to Nick. That was already more than what Judy had been allowed when going undercover at the Bigs. For all that Judy didn't understand Nick on a personal level, he'd come through when she needed help on the case. She'd meant it when she said she couldn't do this without Nick.

She just had to trust him and do her job. "I'm just around the corner from the bar. I won't be able to talk directly to you for a while."

" _This isn't my first hustle, Carrots. Why don't you show me what you've got?_ "

That's right. Judy Hopps was on a mission. She could do this.

When she next caught sight of The Cloven Hoof, she only showed as much caution as a sole rabbit among sheep might display. Her appearance drew squinty stares, particularly from the sheep perched on the fake mountain crag that passed for the roof of the bar.

" _Watchers for the Woolmark gang_ ," Nick couldn't help pointing out over the wire. " _Mostly making sure their rides aren't stolen, but they'll stop you if you seem suspicious._ "

Judy kepy her eyes on the door of The Cloven Hoof, which wasn't hard since a No Preds sign blazed next to it. She would soon find out if she's be barred from entry, just as she had been at ZPD's usual bar.

No one stopped her from pushing open the wooden door of the bar.

It took some moments for Judy to adjust from the dark outside to the artificial brightness of the bar that were mostly focused on the pool tables. The jukebox was playing a song she didn't recognise that was barely audible even to her sensitive ears above the babble of the crowd. Where the noise was loudest was at the bar counter, where sheep were bleating out their orders.

" _No thunderous applause,_ " Nick noted. " _But also a lack of stampeding hooves. I'll count that as a win._ "

In the time that it'd taken Judy to adjust to the lighting inside the bar she'd been noticed. Sheep still went about their conversations, except now they kept an eye on Judy. They watched her - not with sheep eyes, Judy noticed with a flash of vindictiveness - all the way as she took a seat at the bar counter. Without having to shout for attention a bartender - a sheep with impressive coiled horns - sidled over immediately.

Judy gave him her broadest smile, "Can I have the house special please?"

"You don't even know what the house special is." The bartender's flippant tone would have been more effective if he hadn't stopped chewing on his cud.

"Sure I do!" Judy chirped. She dug out the list and passed it to the bartender. The sheep just glanced at the sheet before he disappeared into the back.

At this point, all Judy could do was keep her eye on the door that the bartender had ducked into. Unlike the other sheep at the bar she didn't have a drink to toy with. She'd even take Nick's company - contradictions and all - to keep her from spinning out scenarios in her head right now.

Nick's voice on the wire reminded her she did have his company. " _Radiant Rabbit vs Surly Sheep. He's already failed the first bar trivia question, the house special is a thing._ "

Although she couldn't reply the quip already had her smiling. So she was able to turn up her smile to its earlier brilliance once the sheep popped his head around the doorframe. It didn't really matter - the sheep jerked his head towards the back before disappearing that way himself.

"I guess it's time to hoof it," she said. To the sheep waiting for their drink it seemed like it was to herself, but it was mostly for Nick on the other end of the line.

" _I knew the house special would work. Don't get fleeced back there._ "

Ducking through the door behind the bar, she almost thought she was back outside again. The backroom was kept dark, with only lit up signs featuring the brand names of beers punctuating the darkness. Even in the stark glow of the signs, the sheep Judy had been following was nowhere to be seen.

If this was a bunny bar, Judy would have expected stairs leading downwards into the cool darkness of the ground. It seemed sheep preferred to climb. A wooden structure that resembled a staircase but had slanting steps with a wideness closer to a ladder's rungs led upwards to the only way the bartender could have gone.

Judy headed up the stairs with the same enthusiasm that she'd tackled the vines in the Academy's Rainforest district mock-up. The faster she went, the less she had to think about how she wasn't as sure-footed as a sheep was.

She made it to the room without breaking her neck. A quick size up of the room and its occupants suggested that might still be a possibility. Any of three sheep in the room, including the bartender, could have rammed Judy back down the stairs again, with their thick shoulders and necks hinting at muscles under all that wool.

A sheep with a black muzzle standing by an armchair was the first to speak. "You the bunny with the list?" He waved the paper in his hoof for emphasis.

"Yeah." Although Judy's smile didn't waver, she spoke more quietly than she did in the bar. It didn't seem the right time to draw attention to herself.

Or Nick on the wire. " _That sounds like Old Black Face. Has a temper to go with the name._ "

Black Face - she really needed to get his real name from Nick, this nickname had to do for now - seemed satisfied with her answer. He handed the paper to an all white sheep in an armchair, who grabbed it and stuffed it in his mouth.

As the list was chewed away to nothing, Black Face spoke again. "You're not our usual runner. As for your list... Whoever your source is, he's good, but not good enough."

Judy blinked as if surprised. "Larry? He said he knew what he was doing?"

The bartender bleated out a laugh. "Larry. Keeps getting the list wrong."

"Yeah we know about Larry," the sheep in the armchair agreed.

Judy allowed herself to laugh along with the bartender, though she was really watching Black Face who was keeping his thoughts and feelings to himself.

Her suspicion was proved right when the laughter died away and he asked, "So who wrote Night Howlers on the list? Larry or you?"

"I didn't write it." Her weak laugh wasn't entirely fake. "Is that not right? You do supply Night Howlers..."

The white sheep had gotten up from his arm chair. The crack of his neck was audible from Judy's corner of the room.

" _Hey Judy,_ " Nick said down the wire. " _Do you remember the runner story?_ "

She did. She had rehearsed the facts enough times that they came easily to her now.

"Look," she said urgently to the sheep. "I'm not sure if you know this but runners are being robbed of their Night Howlers during delivery. Yet the orders still haven't stopped. So runners have to try new suppliers and get Night Howlers some other way. I thought you still have supplies..."

She didn't get to finish before the bartender rushed at her. His movements were loud and essayed as compared to those of the ZPD officers Judy had trained with, and it was easy to leap and roll away from both the charge and the open trapdoor.

Police training had honed Judy's ability to dodge and draw her gun at the same time. It was easy to apply the same skills to pull the wad of cash out of her pocket instead. "I have money! I can pay for the goods!"

"It's business innit?" The bartender said. "Let's just give her -"

Black Face waved the other sheep into silence and pointed down at the trap door. "For giving us that list, you get this advice: Next time, work with one of our runners."

Judy was so close, she couldn't just leave! "But- !"

" _Leave it,_ " Nick suggested in her ear. " _If they're not going to give you the Night Howlers I don't think they're going to talk to you about it._ "

Judy wished that she had some way of sharing with the Woolmarked the importance of the information. But that would have given away her training as a police officer. Instead, she turned away andfocused on not breaking her neck on the narrow stairs.

The pick up point she'd agreed on with Nick was a few blocks past the back of The Cloven Hoof, so Judy let herself out through an exit she found in the backroom. By the time the limo pulled up, Judy was kicking at a crumpled can she'd found on the ground.

She didn't wait for the automatic door to fully open before she threw herself in the seat. From behind a fancy glass of vodka Nick gave her a once over, which he summed up with, "Don't look so down, Carrots. The Woolmarked at least admitted they still have Night Howlers in stock."

"Having a stock of Night Howlers doesn't mean that they're using them to make mammals go savage."

Nick set aside his glass to take an empty one and the vodka bottle. "We can find the Woolmarked's stock of Night Howlers and watch their movements - whether they get nicked or used to make mammals savage."

"That'll take time that the savage mammals can't afford. And we couldn't get the relatives to sign the consent forms, or the runners to talk,." She buried her face in her paws. "We're running out of leads."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Carrots," said Nick. "There's still a mammal who doesn't need very much convincing who can give us a better lead. And you've already met."

Judy lifted her head from her paws. "Weaselton is behind bars for robbery."

"How about we give him some incentive to cooperate?" said Nick, smirking over the filled glass he held out to Judy.

Judy accepted it. "What's the plan?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience in waiting for this chapter. Lately writing this fic has been like pulling teeth, and it's made for some really slow chapters. I know where I need to go, and I just need more time to get there. Please continue to be patient, and thanks for reading.


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